


Another Realm IV: Vengeance

by Katkiller_V



Series: Another Realm [4]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Asari Culture, Batarian Culture, Bounty Missions, Cultural Differences, Differing Qurian Races, F/F, F/M, Heavy Drinking, Illium (Mass Effect), Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Insomnia, Interspecies Relationship(s), M/M, Mercenaries, Omega (Mass Effect), Planetary Campaign, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Self-Insert, Slowly Becoming AU, Terminus Culture, Terminus Systems, Trench Warfare, War, assassinations, oc-insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-04
Updated: 2017-01-04
Packaged: 2018-09-14 18:24:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 48
Words: 264,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9197819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katkiller_V/pseuds/Katkiller_V
Summary: It's time to hunt an assassin who claims to have been affected by the same Matriarch who blasted my mind. Oh, and open war has broken out in the Terminus between the Blood Pack and the Warlords allied against their new Krogan Empire. Which is going to make finding my revenge rather annoyingly complicated, but such is life. Krom will die, or I will. Nothing else matters.





	1. Prologue: One for the Road

**Author's Note:**

> So here we are, AR: IV – Vengeance. There will be a very short intro section, and after that we'll be getting right into things. Instead of the usual Arc – Interludes – Arc pattern that the prior stories used, Vengeance is going to be a little different. Instead the story is going to be grouped into 'Operations', each of which will cover a specific mission or operation. In between will be Interludes that cover what's going on with everyone in between missions during their down times.
> 
> Again kudos to The Blocked Writer for sticking around and still acting as my beta, and I hope that everyone continues to enjoy my fic. A note: This story assumes that you've at least read Another Realm: Ronin, there isn't going to be a dedicated recap section.
> 
> This series was originally (and still is), primarily posted on FF.net. I am going to endeavor to keep it updated here as well to ensure that as many people as possible can read it if they so chose. Thanks to a few faithful readers, it also has a tv tropes page, which can be found here: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/AnotherRealm. Feel free to check it out if you're interested.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

**Prologue: One for the Road**

_Date: 11-27-2184_

_(Two years, 5 months after AR: Ronin)_

* * *

"Another." Trena grumbled, glaring at her empty bottle as if it had just betrayed her. Working her pipe around in her mouth, she breathed out a cloud of vanilla scented smoke before clarifying her request. "Good shit this time ape, not this swill."

Rolling my eyes, I reached across the deserted bar and grabbed the first levo-drink my long arms could reach. "Wine from... somewhere on Thessia. That good enough scales?"

"Whatever." Wasting no time in grabbing it, she promptly took a long pull straight from the bottle. "Not bad."

Grunting, I settled back onto my stool and tried to enjoy my own alcohol with a bit more restraint. Although... honestly I had no idea why. Guess I just wanted to face my death reasonably sober instead of being hammered when the time came.

"How many levels now?" It was an expected question. She knew the first thing I'd have done when I woke up from our very brief rest period would be to check with the Warlord to see what had changed.

"None." Exhaling, I took a slow sip of some kind of rum. "They're on this one now. Ten blocks away and closing fast on the main run."

Her little blue nose flared. "Two hours. Maybe three."

"Assuming the Eclipse and the Brotherhood can hold the side tunnels and streets." I reminded her quietly. "If either of them collapses we're done for inside of an hour."

She winced a little. "Yeah. Athame's... how'd I let you talk me into this shit?"

Raising an arm, I punched her shoulder hard enough to hurt through the armor. "Don't start that crap. I didn't even want you with."

"Asshole." She glowered at me, but didn't offer any further contradiction. "What do we have to defend the CIC?"

"Same shit we had before we got a break. The five of us for the upper levels, Nyreen and the Talons covering the main doors, a few cabals from the Wave down below." My left shoulder twitched. "So enough to make them know they were in a fight."

Trena glanced over at a couch, where a woman was curled up beneath a ragged blanket that wasn't large enough to hide the twitching prosthetic hand, nor the dull reflection on a metallic leg.

"She's not standing on the firing line with us." A longer sip from my drink made my throat burn furiously, "Unless it gets that desperate."

Which it would, and we both knew it. Thankfully she had enough sense not to say anything on that, shifting to another topic as if I hadn't spoken. "Nothing from Archangel?"

My lips twisted at the mention of that particular Turian. "No one's seen him since he lost half his team trying to take out Ganar. Could be hurt, could be dead, could be biding his time."

Not that him being here would really help regardless. Don't get me wrong, Vakarian was pretty fucking good at killing things, but he'd already took his best shot and missed. And either way, we were running out of bodies. We'd held longer than we'd had any right to, something to which I at least partially credited myself. Egotistical or not I was damned sure we'd have all been dead more than a week ago if I hadn't done what I had.

Would have been nice if it had been enough though.

"Last transmission said the Black Fleet is clearing the relays as we speak." Me, and everyone else with a brain, had already done the math a thousand times since we'd heard that bit of news. "But they still have to cross the entire system, moving around Sahrabarik, then dock with the station, then fight their way here to relieve us."

And they'd have to. Ganar wasn't an idiot, he'd have the largest detachments he could afford guarding the closest hangers to the command center. The fact that we'd fought like demons to hold onto them in the first place wouldn't help matters, since that had ended up leaving them utterly trashed. Disembarking was going to be a massive pain in the ass.

My friend bowed her head slightly. "That's longer than two or three hours ape."

"Yeah." I didn't doubt that Aria and the army she'd taken with would be able to take the station back once they returned, but it was probably going to be a long and bloody campaign before she took her throne once again. "You get a message to Ghai?"

"Why do you fucking think I'm drinking right now?"

I let out a slow breath. "You could make it to Doru scales. We still hold the lifts, you'd have a straight run to the docks. Most of our crew is still alive, they could get you back to Illium."

"And live another seven or eight centuries knowing I left you here?"

I shrugged laconically. "Yup."

A blue fist promptly smacked my shoulder, nearly knocking me from my seat. "Go bother someone else ape. Let me know when it's time to head back to the line."

Snorting, I slid off the stool and onto my feet, but made sure to grab the wine she was drinking just before she could take another long gulp. "No more scales. If we're going to die I'd rather it not be because you were so drunk you immolated us with your biotics."

Ignoring her muttered comments about my parentage, which were accurate enough that she winced after she said them, belatedly realizing how close to the mark she was. Waving her off before she could apologize, I moved behind her as if I was going to head out of the bar.

Then I took a deep breath, turned, and slammed a fist into the back of her head. My best friend's skull promptly bounced off the bar before she collapsed sideways, saved from a long drop to the floor only because I grabbed her by her arms.

"Joa!" I winced as I gently lowered Trena to the ground, I hadn't meant to hit her _quite_ that hard. "Get in here!"

Armored footsteps quickly sounded, a purple skinned Asari wearing light armor in the same navy and silver paint scheme as mine appearing as she dropped to a knee. "Goddess, I think you over did it Commander."

My lips twisted as she carefully inspected scale's skull for fractures, only relaxing when she nodded to show that she was all right. Well, as all right as someone could be after being knocked unconscious. "I think so too. And I told you not to call me that, we've fucking slept together."

"We did both, but I would have liked to have done it more than once." The former slave pointed out, the white swirling tattoos that covered her face gleaming in the red light. She hesitated before continuing, biting her lip for a moment. "You sure about this?"

"Yeah. Get her home, the ship is yours after that."

"Cieran... you don't have to..." Her head bowed slightly. "No. You do, don't you?" Not waiting for me to reply she turned and waved a hand to beckon two more people over. "Get her downstairs, and make sure to get a disruptor on her neck so she can't try and bolt."

"Captain." The human of the pair nodded, her midnight skin blending in with the dark light. "Beal, grab her other side, I got this one."

The Asari nodded, and between the pair of them they got Trena upright, her feet dragging slightly on the ground as they hauled her back down the hallway that they'd come from.

"She won't thank you for that."

"No." I waited until they were out of sight before lowering my head. "But her bondmate and her daughter will."

"Probably." There was a quiet sigh before a hand reached out to cup my face, her armored fingers trailing through my goatee before reaching the scar that ran vertically down from my left eye. "Going to miss you Commander."

My lips curled a little before I stretched my own arm out, grabbing her chin and pulling her close. Our mouths met for a brief moment, her breath warm on my face, and then I pulled back. "One for the road. Get going Joa."

Sliding her hand up, she ruffled my long hair. "Save me a seat at Athame's bar Cie. And if she doesn't have one, you should get one started."

Snorting, I pushed myself to my feet. "I will. Now get."

She did, giving me a last glance over her shoulder before accelerating to catch up with her people.

Which left me alone, having just sent away the last help we could have drawn on, along with my best friend who would flip her shit the second she woke up. But she'd be breathing and able to do so, able to go back to Nos Astra and take care of her daughter like she should. And that's what mattered in the end.

Sighing, I turned away and left the bar, heading up one darkened ramp, across an empty dance floor, and then clambering along a small stairwell eventually saw me on a platform overlooking Afterlife's main floor. Not that Aria would recognize what we'd done with the place in her absence. Barricades covered the main doorway, fashioned from tables and chairs hastily welded together after we'd made sure they were mostly bulletproof. More had been cut into pieces to reinforce the railings around the upper floors, giving our people at least some cover to hunker behind.

Anyone coming through the front door would walk into a massive crossfire, which would make nearly anyone but our current opponents think twice. Since I and everyone else trying to coordinate the defense knew better, we'd kept a tiny stash of biotic nullifiers on hand. There wasn't enough of the small grenades to do more than break up one or two rushes by the fucking berserkers Ganar loved to use, but if we were lucky most of them would be dead during the fighting just to get here.

Of course, that assumed Ganar was an idiot and didn't keep them back in reserve. And two and a half years of fighting that asshole made me sure that, no matter what his many other failings, a poor tactician he was not.

Not that I'd be on the main floor. When the time came, the companions that I had that were still breathing would be up near the entrance to the VIP lounge. We'd sealed the doorways but that wasn't anything that a few explosives couldn't resolve. If they came through we'd need people up there, and if they didn't we could still join the main cordon.

It was a decent enough plan. Problem was... there just wasn't enough of us left. We could probably hold off one or two waves. Maybe. But they'd take their pounds of flesh in the process, and when Ganar himself showed up...

Shaking my head, I shifted my gaze a bit. Below me and on the left, on the ledge where Aria's couch had been before it had been broken in half and thrown onto the bar below, a small knot of gang leaders and advisers were trying to coordinate the battle raging just a few station blocks away. One, Nyreen, saw me watching and gave me a tired nod before turning back to an Eclipse commando as the exhausted huntress pointed out something on their holo-table.

I waited a few moments to see if whatever it was was critical, stepping back from the edge when it merely provoked shaking heads and tired gestures elsewhere.

Shuffling back, I ended up collapsing in a booth with a clatter of armor plating. There obviously wasn't a stripper on the table in front of me like there would have been less than a month ago, which was rather disappointing. A distraction would have been nice.

"Then again, Ghai did say I shouldn't seek distractions to help repress crap anymore." Ignoring the fact that I was muttering to myself, I leaned back as best I could, trying not to groan as I forced my aching body to relax for once. "But at least she and Ethy aren't here."

"Talking to yourself again?" An exhausted voice asked rhetorically before a slim form dropped into the chair on the other-side of the table, gleaming eyes barely visible behind her armored helmet. "Not a good sign."

"Voya." Electing not to respond, I asked a question I already knew the answer to. "He gone?"

The Quarian's helmet shifted, looking away. "Yes. Never woke up."

Closing my eyes, I tried to feel... something. Maybe I was just too tired. Maybe I'd already lost too many friends. Maybe I'd already accepted it. Shit. More crap for Ghai to help me work through if Athame granted us a miracle. Which she wouldn't. Damned bitch. But at least Ghai would put her skills to better use, treat people who weren't monsters like us. "Dammit."

"That leaves just the five of us to cover the entire third floor." She reminded me quietly.

"Four. Plan went off without a hitch, Joa took scales." My head dipped to one side as I brought that shoulder up in a little Asari shrug. "What else can we do? They need everyone on the front doors."

"We could leave, catch up with them." I gave her a slit-eyed glare that was apparently severe enough that she shrank back a little bit and averted her eyes again. "Just an idea. We could make it to Doru and the ship before it leaves."

"One." I brought up a finger. "Krom is here, so no. Two, if he or Ganar gain access to the control center they could kill half the people on this station. Three, they could also turn the big guns upstairs against Aria's ships. Four, if we bolted and Aria _does_ win this, we are very, very dead for doing so."

"She might kill you anyways, for what you did."

That was a distinct possibility. I was at least fifty percent responsible for the fact that her couch was now in pieces and stained with booze. "We'll worry about that if we live that long."

Voya held up both of her three fingered hands in acquiescence. "So... we guard that floor, hope Krom does his usual sneaking flank thing, and kill him. Then we can die contentedly when Ganar smashes our heads open with his stupid hammer thing."

I mulled over that for a moment before nodding. Ideally we'd have taken Krom alive to give to Aria to torture to death, but since we were going to die anyway... why not just get it over with ourselves? At least we'd get a bit of pleasure before the eternal night. "Sounds about right."

"At least it's simple." She seemed to exhale. "And at least I was able to go back to Xentha for a while. I'd forgotten how much I missed the Old District."

"It was... an experience." That was about the only word I could think of that encapsulated what that particular place had been like. Taking a slow breath of my own, I let my head loll backwards. "Was good to see Nos Astra again too."

"That was... an interesting trip." From the sound of her voice she was as uncertain about my hometown as I'd been about hers. "Then again, it's been an interesting war, hasn't it?"

"It has." Interesting. Terrifying. Depressing. Infuriating. All of the above. "Few more hours of it to go, then it'll be over. One way or the other."

Voya bowed her head slightly, her fingers entwining as she breathed. "One way or the other."

We sat in silence after that, the pair of us trying to get what rest we could as we waited for the signal. She kept her head bowed, quietly murmuring as she asked her ancestors for guidance and strength in the fight that was coming. A little ritual that she did before every fight.

As for me... I closed my eyes, relaxed in the way Ghai had taught me, and lost myself in memory.

* * *

**Next up is Operation I: Trial Run**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Never tried opening a story like this, figured I'd give it a shot. The next chapters will jump back to right after AR: Ronin ends, to the first mission the Silver Blades did for Jona Sederis. Eventually we'll get to the point where this chapter is located chronologically, near the end of course.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat
> 
>  


	2. Operation: Trial Run I

I don't own the Mass Effect. Which sucks.

* * *

**Operation: Trial Run**

_Date: 06-20-2182_

_Location: Eclipse Cruiser Imminent Death_

* * *

The door silently slid aside, letting me enter the cruiser's bridge. A few officers glanced in my direction before quickly returning their gazes to their displays, the dozen plus Asari entirely focused on preparing their ship. In many ways it was a lot like the bridge of the _Yare Noln_ , just scaled up. Roughly a box, with command consoles and displays all around the outside edges of the room, leaving the senior officers free to maneuver around the holographic table that dominated the center of the room.

Knowing better than to bother any of the rather busy crew, I moved as quietly as my light armor allowed, stepping around and past them to get to the more open interior. "Permission to approach, Captain?"

The ship's Captain was, like her crew, an Asari of average height and wearing the tan uniform that the Eclipse seemed to favor for its naval types. She had dusky blue skin, an impressively sharp jawline, and her facial tats were a new one for me, resembling a pair of cresting waves curling up and over her harsh cheekbones. She glanced in my direction before giving me a sharp nod. "Kean. I see your Commander couldn't be bothered. Again."

My lips twisted a little. "She is still running the remainder of our team through drills."

"Still dirtying up one of my perfectly good cargo bays you mean."

I gave her an Asari style shrug, my head dipping left as that shoulder rose and fell minutely. "We've been careful not to destroy anything else, and remain grateful for your hospitality."

"I'm not fucking T'Ravt, stop with that flowery shit."

"Fine." Crossing my arms, I glared at her and let some of my irritation at her harping show. "Athame's ass you fucking worry too much, it was just a few broken wall plates and we made damned sure Jack regretted her temper tantrum."

She grunted, apparently somewhat mollified. "And they're still coming out of her cut for the mission."

"We already worked that shit out. Like I said, stop bloody worrying you tit." Now, you'd think it wasn't exactly bright of me to be talking to the Captain of the ship we were hitching a ride on like this. Normally, you'd be entirely correct in that assumption, but as I'd learned over the past week, Captain Bial Hashen was a very odd Asari. Then again her father had been a Krogan, so I supposed it wasn't all that surprising. "How long until we drop out of FTL?"

"Twelve hours." She leaned over the holotable, her eyes tracking the information that made absolutely no sense to me. "We'll drop out in the outer system and run a check with the ships already present before we sail the rest of the way."

It was my turn to grunt when she shifted the display to one that actually provided me with information, showing the task force's various ships as well as the latest information we had from our target.

The _Immiment Death_ was the largest vessel of the flotilla that Sederis had dispatched, with the next most capable ship being the smaller line cruiser _Moonlit Gasp._ Four frigates, including a _Noln_ whose appearance had brought a wave of nostalgia, rounded out the escort formation. The warships only held commando teams, of which there were seven including us, it was the transport's job to carry the bulk of the ground formation. Six regiments, one per transport, most of them all too eager to finally see action after missing most of the Blue Suns war.

Our target, rotating lazily opposite the task force list, as the moon Denara. Not terribly remarkable in itself, it had an atmosphere of nitrogen and methane and was basically an iceball. What it did have was a gas giant parent with extensive helium-3 mines, and an underground manufacturing complex capable of building fusion power plants. But for the most part, that was the Eclipse's objective. We were there, along with Sederis's commandos, to deal with some of the Krogan war leaders who ran the place, hopefully making the troops lives easier in the process.

We didn't think that any of them would have pertinent information concerning Krom, or Ganar himself. But we had to start somewhere, and it seemed a simple enough set of targets for our first operation.

"Figure sixteen before we're in orbit and we can finally get you off my goddess-damned ship."

Snorting, I reached out and tapped a few controls, but didn't see anything that I didn't already know. "We won't be gone that long. Two targets, then we're back aboard and ready to return to Omega."

Her dark lips twisted. "Even more of your fur covering my decking then. And if that tattooed bitch of a human breaks my ship on the way back I'm throwing her out an airlock."

"You already threatened to do that. Twice."

"That's a promise, not a threat human." Hashen's blue eyes narrowed.

"I believe you." And I did. I also probably wouldn't try all that hard to stop her. It turns out, when you have to deal with Jack on a daily basis in real life, without Shepard around to try and bring out the 'good' in her... she was a fucking caustic, drug-addicted bitch of a human being who seemed to think that all the bad shit that had happened to her excused anything she did.

Don't get me wrong, she'd definitely had a crap childhood that made my own less than awesome life seem like swimming in a placid lagoon. And from what Marcus had told me, she usually attempted to channel that anger towards people who deserved it, which was part of the reason he was utterly besotted with her. She'd killed more than her fair share of child slavers for one, and plenty of people worse than that. She'd been cagey as hell about _why_ she'd done it, but I knew, and I was pretty sure that Voya had at least guessed. The two of them would have gotten along great if it wasn't for one small thing.

She didn't have a fucking _off_ switch. Even Voya, as fucked up as her own head was, knew when it was time to stand down and calm down, or at least pretend to. Jack either didn't know when to stop bitching at everyone, or she just didn't give a shit.

Either way it made dealing with her a daily chore that I just didn't have the patience for.

"Did you actually need something or did you just want to point out that you're willing to kill one of our people again?"

"Your Commander wanted to know when we were within two Omega shifts of our target, and my orders are to be... accommodating." There was a short, annoyed exhale. "I was also intending to question her as to your plan of action upon arrival. I'd rather my shuttles return _without_ holes in them."

"This is our first operation as a unit, we aren't going for a hard combat drop." Manipulating the controls further, I brought up the map of the city we'd be dropping into. For the most part the entire thing was built deep underground, taking advantage of a natural cavern system. The original colonists had had the right idea, installing massive greenhouses and other atmospheric equipment after they'd sealed themselves in with bulkheads and energy barriers before digging deeper to construct their factories. It had probably been a nice place to live by Terminus standards before the Blood Pack had smelled a profit and moved in.

Grunting, I nodded once the image stabilized and I could point out one of the shuttle sized airlocks built into the side of a mountain above the city. "That entrance leads to a security post, last record had the beachhead team holding it. We can enter through there and use it as a base of operations. If they've lost it, we'll put down in the loading docks with the main body."

The Matron leaned forwards, eyes flicking around the map as she took it in. "Good positioning on both targets from there. Here I was thinking you lot were going to fly straight into a hurricane, maybe try and breach one of the access shafts that's closer."

"We aren't suicidal." I pointed out drily.

That earned me a quiet grunt and a slight nod. "You'll have a week to accomplish your objectives, that's how long we're slated to remain in orbit. If you take longer you're finding another way back to Omega."

Rolling my eyes slightly, I nodded all the same. If everything went right we were expecting to have both of our targets dead inside of a day or two, not that any of us honestly thought things would go that smoothly. But even in a worst-case that gave us a five day buffer to work with. "I hear you Captain."

"Good. Tell your prissy bitch of a Commander the next time I summon her I expect to see _her_ , not you. Now get the fuck off my bridge."

Turning, I waved a hand over my shoulder as I headed back towards the hatchway. "I'll tell her." Just like I'd told her the last time. And the time before that. And the one before that.

Exiting the bridge without another word, I wasn't terribly surprised to hear Hashen muttering unkind words about Ayle, me, Jack, and the rest of our team before the sliding door cut her voice off. Nodding politely to the two Asari standing guard outside, I was expecting to have a pleasantly long walk aback to the quarters I shared with Voya, but the massive form leaning against the wall just ahead gave me a bad feeling that there wasn't going to be anything pleasant about it.

"Cieran." The former priest rumbled, the pair of us exchanging polite nods. His a hair to the left, mine a hair to the right. "I see you survived your latest mission."

"Thul." I greeted the titan of a Batarian, not covering up my irritation anymore than I had for Captain Heshen. "What's the crisis?"

"Why must there be a crisis my friend?"

A muscle in my cheek twitched in annoyance. "Because ever since Ayle appointed me her fucking exec all I've done is manage her Athame damned crises."

"That isn't entirely true." He chided, turning to follow as I walked past him. "She stepped in when Shyeel complained about her sleeping arrangements."

"Because I was out of patience and about to shoot her."

"Yes." Thul chuckled, stepping behind me to let a trio of crewmembers move past in the other direction. "And perhaps you were a tad blunt in your explanation."

I rolled my eyes turning my head into the Batarian pose for disdain. "All I told her was that she couldn't room with Jack and Marcus because she'd end up drowning herself in their drug stash inside of an hour."

"True, yes, but not terribly tactful my friend. Perhaps we should discuss a few sayings from the Pillars of Kin and Heart?"

"Thul."

"They both speak on the proper manners for delivering unwanted words," He continued as if I hadn't spoken, which was a depressingly common occurrence. "It may also make your interactions with Madame Nought go far smoother."

"I'm more than capable of tact when I need to be." I growled, turning down a side corridor. "You can't blame me for being annoyed at being given a goddess-damned team. I expected you to get that job."

"I will ignore your blatant change of subject only because it is also worth discussing. Ayle wouldn't have placed you in command of half of us if she did not believe you were the best choice."

Dividing our small squad into a pair of teams had been one of the first things she'd done after we'd elected her our leader. As I'd said, I'd entirely expected her to put Thul in charge of team two, and had been rather taken aback to have been given the post instead. Instead of trying to specialize either group she'd gone more towards a pair of balanced units, splitting our two biotics between us. I'd mentally praised Athame when she'd taken Jack, and she'd naturally taken Marcus as well. The bounty hunter wasn't much of a hacker but he could do it in a pinch, and Voya had lowered herself to teaching him a few tricks. Toss in her two cadre members in Ullak and Hesh, both carrying what heavy weapons we had, and she had a solid little group provided Jack actually followed orders in a fight.

Of course, that left me and Voya with Thul and Shyeel. The former, despite his earnest attempts to 'help' the pair of us, wasn't all that bad. The latter... was still going through dust withdrawals nearly a month after she'd finally stopped using the crap. Which meant she was moody, bitchy, and desperately in need of something to kill.

"I'm not going to dignify that with a response."

He let out a rare whistling sigh through his teeth, revealing he wasn't quite as composed as he was pretending. "Cieran, you are quite capable as a combat leader despite having no formal training. The Pillar of Knowledge teaches that experience is the best teacher, and you have seen more combat than any of us besides Ayle over the past few years."

My lips twisted a little at the reminder that I'd been in more firefights since I'd woken up in Nos Astra than most fucking soldiers did in a similar time frame.

"I know that you are not a natural warrior," Understatement of the fucking century there. "But you are both cunning and intelligent, and I am quite sure that you will have no problems directing us in combat."

It wasn't as if he or Ayle was giving me much of a choice. I'd attempted to talk her out of it, twice, and been told in no uncertain terms to shut the fuck up and go deal with the latest problem that she couldn't be bothered with. "Glad you're confident then. And you never did tell me if there was a crisis or not."

"Nothing that you need to deal with."

Reaching up, I pinched the bridge of my nose for a long moment. "Thul."

The Batarian let out a deep, rumbling chuckle. "Voya took exception to a comment that Hesh made. They've been separated, and his Tarath'shan reminded him not to antagonize your companion. Ayle believed she owed you for once again braving the ship's captain for her."

I snorted, a little relieved that it had apparently just been a minor spat. My blasé words to the Captain or not, Jack's temper tantrum had trashed more than a couple of bulkheads and it wasn't an experience I wanted to go through again. "Heshen is easy, just be as rude to her as she is to you. I don't understand Ayle's issue with her."

Thul gave a little Asari-style shrug to his left. "I cannot claim to know her mind either."

"Well at least I'm not the only one confused then. Where's everyone now?"

"I believe our Commander has Shyeel and Jacqueline sparring once again, along with both of her cadre." Which was probably a better use of her time than dealing with Heshen if I was being totally honest. Neither Jack nor the withdrawing Asari was any good at hand to hand without their biotics, and it was good endurance training if nothing else. "I will admit to not knowing where Jarick or Marcus are, but I believe Voya is at the gunnery range."

"I'll head that way, see if I can't make sure she's not going to try and kill him in his sleep."

He chuckled again. "Likely a good idea. Although, speaking of sleep, are you resting well?"

My good humor faded, a dark tide dragging it away. "Well enough."

"Cieran, I would be more than happy to talk with you about-"

"Thul." He shut up when I let out a hissing breath between my teeth. "Drop. It."

He did so, but didn't look particularly happy to do so. Which was very him, he just couldn't leave shit well enough alone, insisting on trying to help in his own way. My nightmares and sleeping problems were just that though. They were mine. I'd deal with them without meditating on the wisdom of the Pillars or reading copies of their inscriptions or whatever the fuck he wanted me to do.

Which was probably frustrating for him, come to think of it. I knew that he'd also approached Jack, Shyeel, and Voya, and none of us had been even slightly receptive to his offers. Not that he'd ever actually shown if he was annoyed or not, seeming to always be cheerful or quietly accepting of whatever we said.

We walked in silence after that, taking a lift down two decks before following another corridor towards the ship's various cargo bays and hangers. I eventually muttered something vaguely apologetic before we parted, but he waved it away with a cheerful grin before reminding me that the Pillars did not look kindly on someone who simply gave up.

I may or may not have twitched slightly at his words, muttering far less apologetic things about his potential parentage as I entered the room that had been setup as a shooting range. Currently three of the small booths were occupied, while one of the ship's marines lounged in a chair near the door. The Asari gave me something like a deferential Batarian nod, waving a hand towards the two far stations before returning to whatever she was reading on her omni-tool.

Quietly thanking her, I shuffled past where another one of the crew was carefully dismantling an Acolyte, the glowing sign above our heads indicating the range was in cool-down for the next five minutes, before continuing on to where my allies were occupied checking over their own weapons.

The man on the right was about my height but was far more built, his long black hair easily reaching past his shoulders and working damnably well at complimenting his tanned skin. His roguish mustache complimented the rest of his face well enough that Jack had had to threaten more than a few of the human, and Asari, crew who'd looked at her man a little too long for her tastes.

The woman on the left as about as much of a contradiction as you could get. The petite Terminus Quarian was wearing a lightweight suit from the neck down, a fighter pilot style mask visible where it covered her nose and mouth. It left her wild mane of stiff white hair free to cascade down her back, while her oversized and glowing eyes flicked in my direction as she noticed me.

"Cieran. Where the fuck were you?" Like everyone but Jack and Marcus she spoke in the Asari's main language, though her accent wasn't as clipped as mine.

"Dealing with Heshen for Ayle. Again."

"She still making you do that?" Marcus Smith set his heavily modified Predator down, turning his head to glance at me. "Shit man, that sucks."

"Speak for the goddess." Exhaling, I reached up to run a hand through my long hair. "It's getting fucking old, that's for sure. We're two shifts out by the way."

The former bounty hunter grunted, quickly turning back to the range. Neither he nor Jack particularly liked talking with me, not so much because of the language I spoke in but rather because I held myself like a Batarian rather than a human. Apparently it was rather unsettling to talk with someone who held himself rigidly and only moved his head in ways that were distinctly odd for them.

"About time." Voya muttered. "I still say we shouldn't have had to wait that extra week."

"We've been over this." I sighed. "It'll be easier to find and kill both of our targets if they're more worried about an army than if it was just us trying to sneak in."

"Not that the planet is suited to sneaking." Marcus backed me up. "Went there once, chasing some idiot Turian down. The only way into the city is through the ship locks, and those are pretty fucking hard to sneak through."

Voya grumbled some more, but nodded tightly to accept the point. On her right, Marcus picked up his pistol again, checking over his suppressor before snapping his omni-tool to life to run a scan on it. While he occupied himself, I moved over to lean against the wall behind the Quarian, glancing at her scores for the morning.

"Solid."

One of her slim shoulders twitched. "What do you want Cie?"

"For you to not kill anyone before we land."

She let out a low growl. "Hesh would deserve it, the sarcastic bosh'tet."

"Probably, but he's still on our side."

There was another vibrating noise, this one deep enough that she winced slightly. Even a few weeks after her surgery and her vocal cords weren't entirely healed, even if she could at least spend most of a day talking if she was careful not to raise or lower her voice too much.

Her lips curled in displeasure, hands collapsing her pistol before shoving it back onto her belt. Shaking my head, I followed her as she shut down the station and stalked out, giving the guard a tiny nod as we passed her.

"You're getting more irritable." I kept my voice low as we entered the hallway, turning right towards our cabins. "I know Hesh can be an ass but he's not stupid, he wouldn't say anything to you that was over the line."

"He..." Three fingered hands threw themselves up in the air. "Fine. I overreacted."

Voya? Overreact? Impossible. "Voya."

"Cieran." Her tone made it clear she wasn't going to elaborate on what had been said. Or what had happened. Dusky gray skin reflected the light as she turned her head away from me, staring pointedly ahead as we walked. "Is the plan still the same?"

"We'll know in twelve hours, Heshen is pulling us out in the outer system to link with the local buoy."

"At least she isn't stupid then." Voya's little nose flexed as she exhaled. "What's our plan until we arrive then?"

"Message Ayle and tell her for one. She'll definitely want everyone up and mobile for when the information pull happens, was planning on trying to sleep until about an hour before then." The key word there was try. "Probably the last chance we'll have for a long rest for the next week or so."

"Assuming you actually sleep." She pointed out.

"Assuming _you_ actually sleep." I countered. She might not have as many nightmares as I did, but the ones she did have tended to be... bad.

My companion gave a tiny little snort. "We could always spar first. I'd be happy to knock you unconscious, it might even tire me enough to sleep soundly."

"I think I'll just smoke some chehala, thanks." She sighed in disappointment, which made me grin a little in bemusement. "Look at it this way, in less than one Omega day you'll be able to kill people."

She cocked her a head a little at that, and I didn't need to know her half as well as I did to know that she was grinning beneath her mask.

* * *

_**Nos Astra News Tonight** _

_The latest news from the fighting in the Terminus and Traverse continues to see the new Krogan Empire pressing against its opposition, particularly in the eastern Terminus. Worlds where fighting was already occurring between Warlord T'Ravt and the Blood Pack have seen the Lady Warlord dragged deeper into the surf as blockade runners continue to land more and more Imperial warriors on those worlds. While in some locations her people have held their ground, reports indicate that in many locations she is being forced to withdraw and consolidate her people into tighter defensive cordons._

_Closer to home, the Eclipse's primary battle fleet remains in our system, ensuring that no raiders will attempt to strike at their headquarters. While none have dared so far, other worlds in the lucrative Omega to Illium corridor have not been so lucky, with the largest fighting occurring on the world of Denara, where the Eclipse garrison is supposedly barely holding on while a relief fleet rushes to reach them in time._

_After the break, we will speak with our expert panel, asking just how Warlord Ganar Yulaz was able to draw so many non-Krogan ship captains to his side, and just what that will mean as the war continues to rage._

* * *

**Next up is Trial Run II**

 

* * *

_Addendum: Forgot to put this in the intro originally, but I am drawing some inspiration from LogicalPremise's work with permission. If you see something in my stories that is quite similar to his, all the credit to him for whatever awesome idea it was. Known things I'm using from his verse: non-Batarian & non-Quarian biology, Phase disruptors & grenades, and the Citadel governments (partial)._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, chapter names won't be as inventive in this story, at least as far as the Operation sections go. The interludes in between the ops will be a bit more colorful.
> 
> Anyways, back on point. This chapter was mostly filler and letting everyone see all the chars again, hear Cieran's descriptions of them, so on and so forth. Next chapter will be jumping right into the action when they land on Denara (which is a play on Denerim, expect a lot of self-indulgent Dragon Age references in this one).
> 
> One more note, while they won't matter much (at all really) in terms of the story, my outline has the operations and their interludes divided into 'phases'. As a tease, here's phase 1 operation names: Trial Run, Uninvited Guests, Blitzkrieg
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	3. Operation: Trial Run II

I don't own the Mass Effect. Which sucks.

* * *

**Operation: Trial Run II**

_Date: 06-21-2182_

_Location: Denara, Western Terminus_

* * *

**Omega Bounty Board - Nijak**

_Krogan; Blood Pack Logistics Officer; Age 287; Non-Biotic_

_Desc: One of the few competent Blood Pack supply officers, Nijak was single handedly responsible for accumulating the weaponry, food, and other logistical equipment required to launch the raid on Denara. His death is expected to cause a gradual decrease in overall combat ability amongst the invading forces._

_Bounty: 800,000 (Eclipse)_

* * *

The tiny security outpost attached to the hanger we'd landed in was too small to fit everyone. Fuck, it was barely large enough for the five overworked members of the Eclipse trying to keep shit running. Adding myself and Ayle, even with my power armor locked down next to the shuttle, barely gave us room to stare at the holographic displays as the Lieutenant briefed us.

"According to my last scout, Nijak is still holed up in this cargo holding zone." The young human male gestured at the small map that he, Ayle, and I were all crowded around. He was young, pale, and badly needed to shave around his still growing mustache. "He's got at least five warbands for security, but most of those are going to be located here, near sixth street."

Ayle subtly shifted her head back to neutral instead of the rightwards lean she'd greeted him with. He'd botched that pretty badly, assuming that Shyeel was in charge just because she was an Asari, but had since rallied and actually proved to be rather intelligent. "What about inside the bay itself?"

"Unknown." He reached up to run a hand through his grease and sweat soaked hair. "The huntress tried to get in but couldn't find a way to breach it without alarming the patrols. I've got a map... here, this is the interior. He's probably running everything from this booth, it overlooks the bay floor and has links to everything he'd need to organize supply runs."

Grunting, I ruffled two fingers through my beard as I considered the situation against the plans that Ayle had drawn up. She apparently had a thing for having at least three, preferably four, and then using whichever applied best when she had all of the information. It was a level of redundancy and preparation that I very much approved of, and so had Thul and Shyeel when she'd brought the three of us together to adjust them.

"Plan one is probably out, I don't think we can risk rushing them." Reaching downwards, I traced the location that Lieutenant Schneider had indicated. "These warbands could easily cut us off from here before we could get out."

She nodded slowly, lower eyes checking on some of the data on the target area. "Especially given the target booth is actually three stories tall, it will take time to secure it and eliminate Nijak."

Which left one option really. "Plan Three then."

The Batarian woman narrowed all four of her eyes, leaning in a bit as she examined the general map a bit more closely. "Yes... my team will take the target, Jack has the best chance of blasting her way through to him while we cover her. I'm assuming you'll want to block the reinforcement from the exterior?"

"Yeah. This looks like a good choke point." My left hand tapped an intersection, "If they're coming from that direction. Schneider, you think your huntress could feed us data?"

"Possibly..." He frowned, glancing between us, seeming to be a bit lost but resolved to assist us all the same. "My orders are to support you but to prioritize holding this location. I've barely got enough people to do that, so I'd rather not lose one of my three remaining biotics."

"I don't need her to fight." I assured him, "Just to shout a warning when those warbands you indicated come rushing our way."

Teeth bit his lip for a moment. "She'll need to guide you past the patrols anyway, but I'm going to give her discretion to pull out if she's in danger."

"More than acceptable." Ayle gave him a polite little nod. "We will regroup here once we have eliminated our target."

"One moment," Schneider hesitated, then plunged ahead. "The supplies in there. Do you have orders regarding them?"

She blinked both sets of eyes in sequence. "No. Our only concern is Nijak."

"Would you mind keeping the collateral damage down a bit? If possible I mean. A lot of what's in there is stuff we could use when we take it back."

At least he wasn't asking us to try and haul shit back for him. Ayle apparently agreed because she nodded slightly. "We will attempt to do so."

"Thanks." He seemed to be about to say more, then his face twisted for a few moments before he couldn't hold a yawn back anymore. "Sorry. I'll have my huntress meet you in the hanger."

We both gave him polite nods, neither of us condescending to him, and then turned to make our way back out of the small office. Getting out was as fun and awkward as getting in had been, especially for Ayle with her bulkier armor. Thankfully the locals seemed used to having to move out of people's way, wordlessly sliding aside or hugging the walls while we shuffled past.

The other Reyja'krem waited until the door had slid shut behind us before murmuring a question. "You believe that he is trustworthy?"

"As much as anyone in the Eclipse is." I gave her an Asari shrug to my left. "And they've definitely been in combat recently, without a whole lot of rest after."

"Agreed. I don't believe he noticed that one of his techs was asleep at her post." She let out a long breath through her nose. "Let us hope his scout has rested."

"And that they're all alive when we get back."

"That too." Shit would get problematic _really_ fast if they weren't. "Maybe we should see if Heshen can spare some marines to reinforce them? Or maybe a detachment from the main landing force."

"I can handle that." Her upper eyes flicked at me, "You need to get in your armor, run a final systems check and make sure that everyone else is prepared."

I dipped my head respectfully the left, "Got it."

While she shifted to lean against the hallway's wall, already flicking her omni-tool open to get a link back to the kid in orbit, I kept going on and through the door leading into the hanger proper. Though hanger was probably the wrong term, shuttle-sized airlock was more appropriate. In better times it had held some kind of search and rescue vehicle in case they had to try and find someone stuck outside. But right now, the only thing it held was a slightly battered shuttle, a powered-down exoskeleton, and seven people in navy and silver armor talking and bickering amongst themselves.

"My team," I called out to get their attention, "Stop harassing Thul and do a weapons check. Ullak, do the same for Ayle's."

The taciturn Batarian nodded before tersely telling Marcus and Jack to stop making out and to put their Pillars-damned helmets back on. Snorting, I left him to that while rounding on the three people I was in 'command' of.

Voya was leaning against my power armor, her sniper rifle already extended as she checked it over. She'd finally ditched the heavy armor that she'd used on Omega, mostly at Ayle's insistence that it fatigued her too quickly, instead opting for lighter fare that we'd jammed as many additional shielding panels into as we could. After a bit of discussion, she'd stuck with her Viper as her main gun, but she'd replaced her Acolyte with an Executioner... which she'd then forced me to modify to the same level as my own.

Towering over her was Thul, the former priest standing easily in some off-brand middle-weight armor he'd picked up on Xentha. Whoever had put it together had known what they were doing, I'd give them that, there hadn't been much for me to upgrade. His own weapon of choice was a Thashak, a Batarian made semi-auto rifle with some serious stopping power, and just for flavor he had a pack of incendiary grenades on his belt to go along with a collapsed shotgun.

Which just left Shyeel. "Still angry Shy?"

"I told you not to fucking call me that." The twitchy Asari spat, her curved helmet concealing the venomous glare that was definitely being thrown my way. "And you fucking modded my guns, if they don't work that's for you to explain to the goddess after I drown you."

"That would be rather rude," Thul commented, his voice still not quite steady after the flight down. "Considering the effort he put into your weapons and armor."

"More or less rude than throwing up on the shuttle?" Voya chuckled when the big man shifted his head in embarrassment, his X-shaped visor not looking anywhere near the rest of us.

"Voya."

Glowing eyes flicked at me. "What?"

Exhaling, I ran an hand through my braided hair. "Harrass him later, we've got a Krogan to kill. Shyeel, your gear?"

The Asari hefted her Kishock, the spike thrower's dark paint gleaming in the hanger's lighting. "It looks fine to me. Or do you think I should test it, perhaps on yourself?"

I could only shake my head and start walking towards the slumped form of my exoskeleton. "How many more weeks of withdrawing for you?"

"At least two." Thul reported, shifting to place a restraining hand on her gun before she could seriously contemplate aiming it at anyone. "There will be enemies to deal with soon enough, Reyja'krem."

Shyeel made a scoffing sound, but lowered the sniper rifle all the same. Not that I'd seriously expected her to shoot me or anyone else, she wasn't stupid. Just edgy, angry, and craving the drugs she wasn't allowed to inhale anymore. Which made her more or less as dangerous as Voya really, and I slept in the same room as the latter.

While Thul kept the peace behind me, I ducked around my armor's resting shield to find the tiny keypad set against its left side. Sure I could have set it up to open via a command from my omni-tool, but that would rather defeat the purpose of having the communications suite entirely isolated from the suit's other systems. Even the cannon's programs couldn't be accessed by a secure link, we had to physically plug it into a console to get readings. It was a feature I honestly hadn't even thought of, nor had Rane, back when we'd designed the thing, so it had to have been Nynsi's engineers or she herself who'd made that call.

Either she or her buyer was seriously concerned about them being hacked, which would have made me a lot more worried about who that buyer was if I didn't have my own concerns. Still worrying, of course, but that storm was over a different sea right now.

Entering the pass-code, I stepped back as the torso hissed and extended, the arms likewise pushing outwards just enough for me to be able to fit in. Reaching up, fingers gripped the edges of the armor as I hauled myself up, crouched atop the shoulders for a moment, then carefully lowered myself inside. A quick jerk of my chin against the appropriate button saw the motors whirring again as the heavy plating shifted and collapsed back, the air sealing with a quiet hiss as my HUD began to flicker to life around me.

"Checking coms." Voya's voice echoed from my speakers a moment later, the petite Quarian looking even more so now that I had an extra foot and a half of height on her. "Seals look solid enough."

I flicked my eyes over the readouts on either side of my face before grunting. "I hear you, everything looks good in here."

"For now. You know we didn't find all of the problems yet."

My lips twisted a little at the truth in that statement. "More tests in a cargo bay won't help."

She shrugged and stepped out of my way, giving me room to reach back and pull the heavy cannon off of the armor's back with my right arm, while my left lifted to hold the tower shield off of the ground. The former was essentially a duplicate of the same weapon used on Hegemony Mk-9 armor, except cut down a bit and hand-held rather than mounted directly into the arm. Not the highest rate of fire in the world, but with the size of the round it didn't have to be. And hopefully the secondary barrier built into the shield would see this suit be less vulnerable to carnage rounds and rockets than my prior one had been.

Plus, if a Krogan charged me, I could always use it to bash them into the ground with. Always a plus.

"Gun solid, main barriers solid, secondary solid. Tech launcher is loaded." I listed the systems as Voya did a quick circle, confirming that there weren't any visible problems that the on-board VI wasn't detecting. "Actuators are green, coolant flow steady, eezo core steady... should be ready to go. Ullak, how's team one?"

"Prepared, Reyja'krem."

Inside of my armor, I twitched slightly. I didn't care to be called by my title anymore, not in the slightest. Before I could remind him of that, the door slid open to reveal Ayle entering alongside an Asari. About average height, meaning the Batarian woman towered over her, and the slim armor she wore made her seem even smaller.

"By the goddess... Power armor?" Her tone wasn't exactly approving. "Why not just call Nijak now and tell him we're on the way?"

Ayle, her probably annoyed expression hidden by her helmet, tilted her head heavily to the right as her visor glared down at the Eclipse soldier. "You have your orders scout."

"Doesn't mean that I like them." She exhaled, then nodded. "Let's get this over with. This way. Keep the heavy at the end of the line."

I wasn't exactly filled with confidence when we set out, moving into a wide utility corridor with me acting as the rearguard. The next thirty minutes of movement were a combination of boring and harrowing. Old cargo lifts shuddered under our, and especially my, weight as they moved us between levels, depositing us in yet more utility and service hallways that I left more than a few streaks of paint on when things got rather tight.

More than once our guide had us freeze for no apparent reason, her head cocked as if listening or feeling something, waving us into motion only when she seemed assured that nothing was going to hear us clanking around.

Eventually she lead us into a wide, largely empty basement, motioning Ayle over to speak as she checked something on her omni-tool.

"This is as far as I go. We're here, corner of tenth and fifteenth. That lift over there will get your armor up, the rest of you can take the staircase. From here it's one block to the old cargo hanger, straight down tenth."

Our Commander nodded slightly, her head remaining a bit to the right. "And where will you be?"

"Third floor is still intact and has a good view of fifteenth and thirteenth, I can report movement along either and be ready to guide you all back."

Ayle grunted, straightening as she glanced around at the rest of us. "Right, get going then. Blades, hold for a moment. Thul?"

He nodded, but waited until the Eclipse girl had vanished before folding his hands together in a odd pattern. Jack groaned, subsiding when the other three Batarians hissed in annoyance. Thul, as always, didn't seemed bothered, taking his time before eventually speaking. "The Pillars have guided us here, through their wisdom. We will now, for the first time together, spill and shed blood as kin in purpose and direction. Let us be found worthy of one another in this battle, and in those to come."

There was a pause, and his voice turned less solemn and more amused. "And may those who have been lifted to the skies by the Pillar of Power most closely watch the human Jacqueline Nought this day, for I believe they will quite approve."

I couldn't help but snort, while Voya rolled her eyes and Hesh barked out a short laugh.

For her part, Jack seemed more than a little taken aback. "The fuck? Did you just tell your god that I'm a bad-ass or some shit?"

"That is not entirely accurate, but perhaps close enough." Thul chuckled, politely bowing to the woman. "We can discuss it another time."

"I'm... what... shit. You're a weird fucking boyscout."

"Quite." Ayle sounded amused for a moment before getting everyone back on track. "He and you can discuss the finer points of our religion later. For now, we have a Krogan to kill. We're operating on plan three. Team one, we're going straight for our target. Jacqueline, you're our point-woman. Hesh, Ullak, drop anything that tries to flank her. Marcus and I will cover you."

Her four subordinates nodded, before Jack spoke again. "We just want this fucker dead, right?"

"By any means you see fit. If you see him, feel free to throw a cargo pod or warpfire or whatever you think will kill him. We have to move fast, team two is going to be holding off the patrols and reinforcements while we're busy."

Shyeel grunted from somewhere near my elbow. "Lovely. Where?"

"Just outside the main doors." I spoke up, "There's an intersection where we should be able to hold. Voya can hack the doors so we don't get hit from behind."

The Asari nodded slightly. "Then why are we waiting?"

"We aren't." Ayle pulled her own rifle off her back, holding it loosely in her hands. "Cieran, keep in radio contact. I have Jarick feeding me intel, he has authority to cut you in if he hears anything problematic enough. Everyone else, I want you to focus on your targets, and no Pillars-damned heroics."

The rest of us nodded, with myself and Voya heading towards the lift while the others made for the stairwell that the Eclipse scout had vanished up. A few minutes later had everyone on the first floor of the place, which looked like it had once been a store of some kind before it had been looted rather extensively.

After that... it was time to split up, Ayle leading her team down one street, me leading mine down another. All things considered, despite the obvious fact that fighting had occurred in the area, the city reminded me of the upper parts of Omega. Full buildings constructed inside of caverns, actual streets instead of tunnels, mostly anyway. The main thing missing was people, though here and there I caught signs of locals, mostly watching us move past with exhausted and terrified eyes before vanishing back into what was left of their homes.

"I'm surprised they stayed." Shyeel spoke, her tense voice somewhat subdued as we moved past a rather shot up storefront. "The Blood Pack isn't known for mercy, you'd think they'd have been intelligent enough to flee."

"Flee where?" I shook my head inside the armored box protecting it. "Unless they had room on a ship it isn't like they can just step outside. And I doubt the Eclipse wanted refugees flooding their defensive cordon around the main hangers, or the control room."

"So what? They just stay in their little caves, praying to their gods that things get better?"

"The idiots do." Voya's voice was hard. "The smart ones died fighting, or still are. Better to be with their ancestors than what those creatures would do to them."

Grunting, I flicked my eyes at the tiny screen holding a local map. "We've got ourselves to worry about, next street is the major throughway. Our destination is a hundred meters left and will definitely be guarded."

Blowing out a breath, I nodded slightly as I worked out who I wanted where, just as if I was still Nynsi's Harath'krem, leading a small unit to take out some True Sons. "Thul? You're with me up the middle, use the armor for cover and watch our backs. Voya, stick to the near side, focus on the Vorcha. Shyeel, flash across and pick out the leaders. Use the doorways for shelter when you can, try to keep pace. Move in ten seconds."

Both women nodded, checking their weapons a final time as Thul casually shifted into a position behind and to my left, where he'd have the added benefit of my shield more often than not.

Three... two... "Let's go."

Lumbering the last few meters that would take me out of side-street and onto the main road, I kept my pace at a brisk walk as I emerged into the wide open space. Sure enough, about a clawball field's length away was a gaggle of Vorcha, being harangued by a Krogan as he waved his arms and bellowed something vulgar.

Honestly it was... a bit surprising. I'd expected a lot more than the small tithe of aliens present, and better barricades or guard posts than the few torn bits of metal re-purposed for that role. Nijak must have been supremely confident of the group blocking off the security station we'd snuck out of, or maybe he wasn't nearly as good of a soldier as he was a supply guru. Fuck, maybe everyone was just at lunch.

Either way, it made the fight that followed anti-climatic in the extreme.

Starting on the right, I swept my gun in a quick arc, the heavy _thud-thud-thud_ reassuringly familiar even as Voya's Viper let out thin cracks of it's own, Vorcha tumbling and screaming in the distance as our incendiary rounds tore their strange flesh apart. Behind me, there was a burst of blue light as Shyeel hurled herself across the street and into a doorway, rolling out of the charge before rising to a knee and aiming in a smooth motion.

One flash of light later, and the Krogan trying to organize his tiny pack was collapsing to the ground, his helmet obviously shattered.

After that... that was about it really. Two of the Vorcha tried to make a fight of it, dying to a shot apiece from me, while Voya and Shyeel negligently tagged three more that tried to turn and run.

"Ayle, this is Cieran. Doorway is cleared... not much of a guard presence."

" _Confirmed._ " I'd scarcely heard her voice before shouting, screaming, and explosions began to reverberate through the walls. " _We've sighted the target on the third floor, are fighting our way to the stairwell. A warning, there's nothing within ten meters of the doorway on this side, so if you've got to fall back make sure you can lock the doors behind you."_

"Got it." I slowly accelerated into a fast jog, about the quickest the armor could seriously move, my companions easily keeping pace even with their weapons up and at the ready. "We're securing the post, let me know when he's dead so we can get the fuck out."

" _Will do._ " Another explosion punctuated her words, along with what sounded like Jack cackling about destroying someone. Well, at least she was having fun.

"Same plan to hold?" Thul asked as we moved, his head turning as he glanced behind us. "Not as much cover there as I was hoping."

Grimacing, I slowed as we arrived, glancing over the position and ignoring the bodies and blood strewn about. It was... about as shitty of a guard post as it had looked from a distance, just a bench for the boss to sit on, and a few broken workbenches being used for cover. They might hold up against a limited barrage... maybe. Shit.

"Voya, keep those doors shut. Shyeel, Thul, make sure none of them are breathing."

The Quarian grumbled as she holstered her weapon, stepping over the very dead Krogan before examining the tiny control panel and getting to work. While she did that, the other two carefully inspected the dead, Thul calmly putting rounds through the heads of two Vorcha too stubborn to realize they were already dead.

" _Big guy, you've got incoming."_ The Eclipse Scout's voice murmured quietly over my comms a few moments later, while I was trying to decide how the fuck to turn this into an actual defensive position. " _Full warbands moving down both streets, make three krogan and thirty plus vorcha. You've got two, three minutes."_

Athame's ass... that was just the streets she could see, there was probably more. "Thanks for the warning."

_"It's all your getting, I'm pulling back to the underground. Will wait for any survivors there."_

Voya growled from where she was working on the doors. "Can I kill her? Please?"

"Don't tempt me." I muttered, taking another glance around and still not seeing much. Everyone not in power armor needed far more cover than we had, but with what was available... "All right, Thul, need your help, fast. I'm going to drop my shield, we're going to wedge it against that wall with those barricades to extend the cover. Shyeel, might need some biotic support. Voya, the doors?"

"Hacked." She nimbly moved out of the way when I heaved my bulk past, watching as Thul hauled some of the scrap metal out of the way so I could safely drop my shield, biting my lip as I focused on carefully turning it onto its side with just one hand. "Locked until I open it for us to fall back through."

"Good. Thul, bit more to the right... there. Now press it back at an angle to help keep it up, Shyeel, can you grab whatever that thing is and put it over... yeah, there. Thanks." Grabbing it on the way out would be annoying, but doable. "You two, here's your bunker. Thul, you're with me as before. Save your grenades though."

While the two women nodded and shifted into their make-shift sniper's post, Thul grunted and checked his over his main weapon. "Hold off a rush or two, then fill the place with fire and get out?"

I nodded, not that he could see it. "That's the idea."

Behind us, something else exploded in the cargo bay, and what sounded like a Krogan screaming in agony for several moments before the faint bellows cut off. The former Artisan's voice turned wry as he shifted to again use me for cover, "I am increasingly wondering if Miss Nought is not a Nillisan _._ "

The groan was out before I could stop it, hands shifting to hold my weapon in a two-handed grip as I swept it across all three streets. "By Athame, don't tell her that. It'll go right to her fucking head."

"What the fuck is a Nillisan?" Shyeel demanded, her heavy rifle resting across my shield as she settled into place. "Some religious thing?"

Something moved in the distance, a head jerking around a corner before vanishing. "Debate religion later, incoming, two hundred meters, straight ahead."

There was a keening, high pitched shriek that made me grit my teeth in anticipation. Sure enough dozens more quickly sounded, the Vorcha war shrieks sounding just before they began to burst onto the main roads, their guns up and ready as they rushed towards our little position.

* * *

_**Alliance News Network** _

_...reports from the Skyllian Verge continue to remain positive, despite the expanding war in the Terminus systems throwing the nearby pirate groups into disarray. Admiral Hackett, commander of the Fifth fleet, maintains that his fleet is standing vigilant against any possible attackers. While the Admiral justifiably would not comment on rumors that Spectre agents had been assigned to the region to help maintain the peace, we have received confirmation that at least two are active within the Traverse._

_Senior, and often touted as legendary, Spectre Saren Arterius was photographed eliminating a group of mercenaries not more than a month ago. In even better news, Spectre Nihlus Kryik along with our own Spectre-Candidate Lt. Cmdr Kaya Shepard, were reported has having broken a slaving ring near Batarian space just last week. The refugees quickly made their way to Elysium, where many were found marveling at the statue of the Lionness, remarking on how perfectly it captured her image._

_For more on Shepard, and other Alliance heroes, see Profiles in Courage on the Extranet, keyword: Courage._

* * *

_**Next up is Trial Run III** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a bit heavier on the descriptions than most of the others, largely because this is the first time that we really see everyone all armored up and ready to fight and wanted to make enough of the details were out there. Next chapter will wrap up this particular bounty, with one more taking place on Denara before the first operation is over.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	4. Operation: Trial Run III

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

**Operation: Trial Run III**

_Date: 06-21-2182_

_Location: Denara, Western Terminus_

* * *

The last time I'd had power armor, I'd been on Korlus, fighting the Blue Suns. Against those assholes, it had been a rough fucking time. One, often times two shots just to get their shields down, with another to kill them after. Which gave them a few critical breaths where they could throw themselves to the ground or dive into cover, or hammer me with missiles, overloads, carnage rounds, grenades, what have you.

Fortunately, Vorcha didn't have shields. Or armor at all really.

Orange tracers roared down the street as I held the trigger, sweeping my weapon slowly from right to left. Aliens screamed and died amidst bursts of red blood and flares of fire from the incendiary ammo block I'd loaded, one shot being all it took to shatter their slim bodies regardless of where I hit them. Every third or fourth round kept its momentum solidly enough to tumble into the being behind my target, crippling or killing them as well.

I must have killed a dozen Vorcha in as many breaths, and wounded equally as many.

Behind and to my left, Voya's light sniper rifle cracked in sequence as she calmly picked off her targets, Shyeel's heavier weapon thundering as she negligently used body shots to easily put down her own. On my opposite side, Thul was kneeling behind my right knee, his rifle up as he easily matched Voya's accuracy and kill count, much to her frustration.

They easily killed as many, if not more than I did, the aliens collapsing to the ground in sprays of blood as they screamed and died.

But then we were reminded of why the Blood Pack was so goddess-damned dangerous. As if a switch had been flipped, the swarm of Vorcha trying to rush us abruptly scattered, rushing into doorways and alcoves, or taking cover in side-streets and leaning around the corners.

Fuck. This was why I hated fighting these assholes. They could go from the worst sort of berserker fury to being perfectly acceptable soldiers within a breath, and flip back whenever they fucking felt the need to. Well, Vorcha could. Krogan had a harder time turning the Blood Rage off, but were naturally deadly enough to be a massive fucking problem on their own.

The fire coming back at us quickly grew more accurate as they settled themselves, a chaotic mix of rifle, pistol, and shotgun rounds whipping around us. Well, primarily me, sparks and ricochets flying off of my barriers as they focused on the largest target in sight, my own shots slowing as I ran out of easy targets, focusing instead on combing the right side.

"Voya, Shyeel, watch the left side!" I winced as a heavier round of something slammed into my right should, dropping my barriers more than I would have liked. "Thul, keep your eyes on the other-"

"Movement!" He interrupted me, shifting to swing his weapon back the direction we'd come from.

Swearing, I risked the two seconds to flick my eyes around, the broad view provided by my cameras letting me see a small group Vorcha sprinting in our direction... along with a massive, looming figure clutching a titanic shotgun as it moved.

"Shyeel, need biotics right!" Shifting, I took a step forwards to give her room to move. "Patrol incoming!"

The Asari rose, cursed when something screamed off of her armored shoulder, then darted over to use Thul and I for cover. Placing a hand on his shoulder, she glanced around him before nodding and blurring with biotic light. A moment later she stepped around and punched her hand forwards, the tiny disc of a singularity rocketing a hundred meters down range before snapping to life with a baleful glow.

The difference in power between Illyan, whose singularities I was familiar with, and Shyeel's was immediate and obvious. Where my friend's weak biotics often struggled to do more than lift two or three targets, the former drug addict's easily hefted seven Vorcha plus their Krogan into a dizzying orbit, all of them screaming and cursing.

While the pair of them quickly dealt with the now helpless targets, I shifted back to full auto to try and make up for the fact that two fewer guns were shooting forwards. It was a rather significant decrease in shots, especially since I could still see _more_ Blood Pack fodder showing up, including several more hulking forms.

Shit. Trusting Voya to keep her focus on the Vorcha, I shifted my aim to the larger targets. The gleaming orange rounds traced left, two, three, than four shots hammering into the first Krogan and driving him to the ground. Before I could try and adjust to the other two, one fired off a carnage round that nearly sent me stumbling into my companions, making me swear as he followed it up by intelligently ducking into cover.

"Athame's fucking... Shyeel, hurry the fuck up! More Krogan!"

"Busy!" She snapped back, "More over here!"

To reinforce that point, both of them flinched when the enemy finally realized that my barriers and armor were bouncing their shots, and shifted to focus more on the two people using my bulk for cover. On the left, Voya flinched behind my shield when another carnage round screamed over her head, slamming into the door with a dull explosion. In the other direction, Shyeel hurled out another singularity to replace the one that had collapsed, but this one stopped far short of the enemies. Instead snapping to life midway between us and them, the artificial black hole warping the gunfire they were throwing our way, sending the rounds screaming into walls or the ground.

Which gave her and Thul ten seconds or so, which they adroitly used to bolt over and join Voya in her little makeshift post. We managed another good five or six second volley after that, dropping several more Vorcha and keeping both Krogan penned into their own cover. But as soon as Shyeel's singularity collapsed, I got a good look at another pair of the massive aliens herding a good dozen Vorcha straight towards me.

I opened my mouth, ready to ask Shyeel for another singularity. If I followed that up by charging I'd have a good shot at killing most of them... but I'd leave the others vulnerable. The cover we'd setup wouldn't be able to take the punishment already starting to head their way, hammering at my shield and the benches and driving Voya back into cover as something heavy knocked her barriers down.

"Sh-Thul!" I corrected the order I was giving before I could fuck it up. "Grenades!"

He didn't waste his breath saying we hadn't held as long as we'd planned, instead quickly ducking back and grabbing the small orbs. The cut-off in fire as he handed them to the women was enough to be noticed, more yowling screams bouncing off of the buildings as... fuck that was a lot of them rushing at us.

Sweeping my gun left to right, I barely needed to aim as I held the trigger down. I might as well have just stood there and done nothing for all the good I did, there were easily four warbands worth of Vorcha full-on sprinting at us, their guns firing wildly as they came on.

The first grenades bounced right in front of the leaders before exploding in flashes of orange light. Batarian napalm coated the ground, burned in the air, and left its victims screaming as more sailed outwards to explode, building a wall of fire across the street. On the right, the patrol group wasn't forgotten as Shyeel hurled the two that she'd been given their way. One hit a Krogan straight on, the burly male bellowing as he thrashed, firing his gun as he panicked and staggered. Not that I was complaining that he'd just killed his comrade, it made shifting my aim to clear out the stunned Vorcha easier.

"Voya!"

"Already working the door!" She snapped back.

"Thul, any left?" Taking a few slow steps back, I tried to shift towards where I'd left the shield as I put down the last two targets on the right, one of them being the still twitching Krogan. "That wall is awfully thin!"

"It's a _street_!" His gun cracked he as tried to hit something on the other side of our firewall. "We're lucky we had enough at all!"

"Athame's-" I didn't get to finish the curse before a pair of bellowing Krogan simply hurled themselves through the flames, their guns up and ready. One dropped after a step, Shyeel had been waiting for someone stupid Huguenot to try that, but my weapon took a little longer to drop the other, three shots tearing into his stupidly heavy plate before the fourth blew into his chest. That gave him enough time to put two solid slugs from his shotgun right into me, my strained barriers collapsing entirely as I staggered back from the dual-hammer blows.

"Athame's _fucking_ ass." Shaking my head against the ringing, I risked a quick check but didn't see any alarms on the readouts. "Voya!?"

"It's opening! Move your pale human ass!"

That sounded like a good idea, especially as Thul and Shyeel were already darting through the opening behind her. Turning, I grabbed my now rather battered shield in one hand and dragged it with, ignoring the sparks that flew as it rattled along the ground. Someone must have seen me moving back because there was a furious bellow from a Krogan followed by a more focused fusilade of gunfire that rattled against my armor like rain.

Then I was through, and Voya was jabbing a button to send the heavy cargo doors crashing back into place.

" _Cieran, we see you!"_ I tried not to groan at Ayle's shout, belatedly realizing that the sounds of gunfire had hardly decreased even after the door had shut. " _Secure the doorway thirty meters behind and to Voya's right, target is eliminated and we're pulling back!"_

"Got it." Exhaling heavily, I shifted the shield around, letting it rest against my armored frame. "Everyone intact?"

"Barriers are still recovering." Voya made a few adjustments to the control panel, nodding when it flashed red. "But nothing got through."

"Same." Thul reported, stepping up to help me get my shield properly gripped again. "Your shield is... missing most of its paint, and has a few dents."

"Not surprised." My eyes flicked right. "Shyeel?"

The Asari seemed to start, straightening from where she'd been sagging. "Fine. I'm fine."

She obviously wasn't. "Thul."

The Batarian man nodded, shifting to help her get moving. She promptly shoved him away and started jogging slowly towards the door, ignoring him when he easily loped along in her wake. Heaving myself into motion, and pulling my shield up and into position, I waited for Voya to get moving before following. "Who got the kill?"

" _You had to fuckin' ask?"_ Jack's voice was far too pleased with herself. " _Fucker wasn't even a challenge once he stopped running."_

" _Quite."_ Ayle sounded approving despite her words, " _We're hitting the floor now, I can see you."_

Flicking my eyes to my rear camera, I grunted when I saw five people emerging from a doorway set into a wall. "I see you. Shyeel, how's the door look?"

"Clear." My lip twisted when I returned my gaze to the front, seeing her leaning heavily against an open cargo door leading to the side throughway that Team One had come in through. "I'm... less fine than I thought."

"Not shit. Thul, get her moving. Voya, stick with them and keep them covered." The Quarian nodded, turning from where she'd been waiting for me to keep up. "Ayle, I'll keep you all covered."

" _Don't slow down on our account, we can catch up."_

I honestly hadn't been planning on slowing down, but it was nice to have permission.

" _It won't be hard to catch up._ " Hesh sounded amused, his voice flicking between my radio and local speakers as he drew closer. "He's not escaping from a sandstorm anytime soon."

Grimacing, I couldn't exactly deny that even as I lumbered through the doorway. The armor, much like my old suit, just wasn't designed to be fast. It had a big, rumbling engine, an eezo core as small as possible to reduce the cost, and then as much armor as its skeleton and mymor muscles could support. Sure, I could throw an aircar around, but about the only species I could outrun were Volus.

"Anyone pursuing you?" I asked Ayle when she caught up with me just outside of the cargo bay. Her armor looked fine if a bit dented, but at least she wasn't coated in Krogan blood like Jack was. Most of it was probably from the headcrest she was carrying over one shoulder, the trophy leaving droplets in her wake as she jogged. "Or did Jacqueline take care of it?"

"Most." The other Reyja'krem easily matched my speed, "We used our grenades to blast the doors on our way back, should slow them. You?"

"Locked that door, used up all of Thul's fire grenade things to cover our retreat. Was hoping to hold longer but that position was terrible. And there were a lot of them."

"There _is_ an army here." She reminded me, following everyone else as they turned down an alley. I had to shift my shield directly in front of me to make sure it didn't bang it into the wall, and I slowed for a step to make sure Ayle could get ahead of me. "How many Krogan?"

I wracked my brain for a moment. "Six or seven. We killed a few, Shyeel's a solid shot with that heavy rifle."

"She'd better be, it cost enough." My commander muttered. "Why is Thul carrying her? She injured?"

"Exhausted I think."

"By the Pillars... her drugs?"

"Probably." We'd need to sit her down and run through some biotic exercises or something, maybe work her through dialing her powers back. And probably make her sit through a full body scan to see how damaged her body was.

She grunted, then shifted her tone. "Scout, you still there?"

" _Yes._ _Sounds like you lot have seriously churned up the water._ "

"You could say that. Any local contacts?"

" _Nothing since I alerted the big one."_

"Voya, contacts front?"

"Noth... hold!" She and everyone else skidded to a stop as the little Quarian glanced around a corner, holding a hand up. Her voice was notably lower when she spoke again, "Patrol, definitely searching for something."

Ayle hissed in irritation. "They have varren?"

"No. Hesh, move up, your eyes don't glow."

Good news and good thinking. Something else to remember for next time. Fuck Ayle and I were going to be sitting down for a while after this one. Ahead, the Batarian male moved up to take Voya's place, risking a quick glance of his own. "One Krogan, Vorcha moving in and out of the buildings... maybe fifty meters away."

"Shit." Ayle and I muttered at about the same time, in the same tone of voice. She snorted while I continued, "Add suppressed weapons to the list of crap we need."

"No argument. Shyeel, can you shoot your weapon?"

"Yeah." The Asari shook herself free from Thul's hands, pulling her Kishok off her back. "I'll drop the big one."

"Good. Hesh, Ullak. As soon as she does so I want a full barrage with what you've got left. Jack? A shockwave would be helpful as well. We need them to be stunned and blind long enough for everyone to get across the street."

Everyone nodded or quietly chorused their agreement, Jack and Ullak moving up to join Hesh and Shyeel at the corner. After a few moments of conversation and swearing from the human, they worked out who was going in what order while the rest of us tried to crowd as far forwards as we could. And also try not to cause that much noise, which wasn't exactly easy considering my relative size and weight.

Once she was ready, our heavier sniper carefully settled into a kneeling position, just her weapon and the edge of her helmet around the corner as she lined up the shot. There was a quiet whine as the Batarian weapon built its charge, then it bucked against her shoulder as she released the round.

The two Batarian men and the biotic behind her wasted no time in moving, nor did the rest of us. Explosions both conventional and the odd-sounding thuds from biotics sounded off as Thul and Marcus heaved Shyeel to her feet and dragged her between them despite the tirade she subjected them both to. Voya and Ayle were quick to move after them, leaving me bringing up the rear.

Glancing to my left as I rumbled across the street, I felt my eyebrows raise in approval of the distraction and chaos that the four had caused. I could barely make out the dead Krogan between the fragmentation grenades detonating all over the fucking place, Jack's biotics warping the air as she shattered windows and sent Vorcha flying through the air.

And she was still carrying that damned Krogan crest around in one hand.

I didn't get shot at once before reaching the other-side, nor did anyone else, the three pyromaniacs quickly following once the last of their grenades were used up, the heavy weapons slung on their backs as they drew more conventional arms.

"Ahead, then right at the next turn. Jarick says we can cut through what used to be a shopping center, it had service access to a store-room below." Ayle informed everyone as we kept moving, "Cieran should fit as well."

I grunted, but Marcus spoke up before I could say anything. "Even if we lose them, they'll know where we came from Commander. It's the only place around."

"I'm aware, Marcus." There was an annoyed, whistling exhale through her teeth. "It's a problem, but a workable one. Thanks to Jarick, we'll have a plan, but first we need to get back."

"Can't argue with that." The bounty hunter agreed.

Luckily for us, we did seem to have lost them, or at least did so long enough to break into the abandoned store and work our way deeper underground. From there it was a quick trip through a pair of wide service tunnels that I left minimal amounts of paint on. I still got hissed at by the Eclipse Asari for making too much noise when we entered the area we'd originally come through, and overall she didn't seem too thrilled that we'd all returned.

Which was tough shit for her really.

We slowed our pace a bit as she lead us back the way we'd came, but that at least gave me and Ayle time to talk on our private helmet-to-helmet line. Mostly private that is, she'd also cut the kid in.

" _If you can hold for a few hours, Captain Heshan convinced the senior commander to dispatch a platoon to secure the hanger."_ He'd probably already told Ayle all of that, but I appreciated the recap. " _She's letting me read the Eclipse's intelligence packets, it should take the Pack most of that time just to organize ma'am, sir."_

"That still leaves thirty minutes to an hour to help defend the place." I frowned. "And I don't think the Eclipse would thank us for drawing attention to Schneider's little group and then leaving them to drown."

Ayle apparently agreed, giving me a polite nod. "They wouldn't, which is why we're going to help them fortify the place. It won't be hard, he's already got the primary choke-point well defended, we're just extra guns."

"What about our other target? Jin? Jan?"

" _Jion sir. He's leading an attack on the docks."_

I grimaced. "That doesn't sound like we'll get his bounty, some Eclipse commando is probably going to eviscerate him way before we finish up here."

"Of course we will claim him as well." She seemed rather amused by my lack of confidence. "As soon as we get back, Marcus will take Shyeel's Kishock, then he and Voya will take our shuttle to the docks. Jarick will guide them to the target, he'll eliminate him and she'll record it for confirmation."

"And they should get back just after the reinforcements get to us?"

"Precisely."

"You good with that plan kid?"

" _Yes sir. I'm tracking reports of where he is right now, unless the platoon he's engaging eliminates him Miss Voya and Mister Marcus should be able to reach him around the same time as he gets to the main defensive line."_

I shrugged minutely, the motion hidden by the armor. "Seems workable to me, no objections."

It seemed both workable and simple, which probably should have told me it wasn't quite going to be that easy.

* * *

**Badass Weekly – The News Channel**

_"...Zaeed Massani continues to astound even at his advanced age, personally leading a small team of veteran mercenaries in a daring ground assault that saw the destruction of three eezo-haulers discharging their drives on the planet X8-57 in the outer Terminus. Details are still coming in, but the plan appeared to begin with crashing their own ship into the lead hauler head-on. What do you make of that Hiran?"_

_"Spirits, I can't even find the words Dave. That human was born the wrong species, make him a Turian born in the Hierarchy and he'd be the greatest Spectre the galaxy has ever seen. He'd even outdo Arterius."_

_"In missions completed or in the amount of collateral damage?"  
_

_*laughs* "Both!"_

* * *

**Next up is Trial Run IV**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of fighting, bit of running away, bit of planning... the glorious life of a small-unit mercenary team hunting targets and then getting the fuck out. Chapter was a bit shorter than my norm, which works for me to get in a quick warning; Chapters are going to be shorter overall in this story. The current (possibly final) outline is currently at 70+ chapters for the entire story arc. I will do my best to avoid losing quality, but the word length is going to come down in order to maintain my sanity plus give me time to work on my personal projects while I do this. In the better news, that could see an increase in how quickly I get chapters done, no promises but it is quite possible we could be seeing several per week in the near future (post Adepticon).
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	5. Operation: Trial Run IV

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

**Operation: Trial Run IV**

_Date: 06-21-2182_

_Location: Denara, Western Terminus_

* * *

**Omega Bounty Board – Ganar Jion**

_Krogan; Blood Pack Logistics Officer; Age 378; Non-Biotic_

_Desc: While Nijak was the brains behind the assault on Denara, Ganar Jion was the brawn. Assembling the massive warband with his emperor's permission, he struck at the planet intending to seize its extensive production factories, or at the very least to deny them to the Eclipse. His elimination would remove the Blood Pack's primary leader on planet._

_Bounty: 400,000 (Eclipse)_

* * *

There were times when I hated being me. Case in point, while the rest of the unit, save Ayle, were bunkered down with the Eclipse and holding off another wave of attackers, I was stuck in the command center. Not by choice, mind you. Or even because Ayle wanted me there.

Nope. I was being held out of the fight because my skull was currently trying to split itself open, the Floating Mind migraine making it so that sitting there was about the extent of my capacity to do shit. Normally it wouldn't knock me out of commission like this, assuming that I was able to take my pain meds I'd at least be able to function within a few minutes of taking them.

Except that I didn't fucking have them on me, and Schneider's medic had run out of pills that humans could safely take three days ago.

"Cieran?" I cracked an eye open when Ayle spoke, seeing the tall woman with her head tilted politely in concern. "Still breathing?"

"Part of me wishes I wasn't." I murmured back, tilting my head a bit to the left before checking my omni-tool for the time. Athame's ass, I'd been out of it for nearly forty minutes. "We repulse the last wave?"

"Easily." She confirmed. "And Marcus reports no attempts to breach the utility tunnel."

He was probably the only person as annoyed as I was. Shyeel had insisted on being the one to go with Voya, and she'd seemed to have bounced back from...whatever the fuck had happened to her. So instead he'd drawn the short straw, being sent back down the tunnels we'd exited from to make sure that no one tried to get into the security center that way. Not that we seriously expected the effort, not with all of the mines that Schneider's people had setup on the other side of the final door, but neither Ayle nor I saw the point in risking anything. Of course, that left him stuck just sitting next to a sealed door and monitoring the various alarms along with a pair of Eclipse technicians so tired they could barely keep their eyes open.

Not that I felt much sympathy for him. My head hurt too much for that.

"Any news from..." A throb made me wince. "Voya or Shyeel?"

"They're in position, Jion is apparently attempting to control several of his more unruly subordinates so his attack has been delayed." She seemed bemused by that, "Jarick is keeping them informed on his movements."

"Good." I suppressed a hiss at another painful pulse. "Can't believe I fucking left everything on the cruiser."

"Consider it another item on our list." Her voice was reproving but not angry. "Has it ever happened in combat before?"

"No. Been lucky I guess." My lips thinned. "Probably why I didn't fucking think of it."

Her lower eyes blinked slowly. "If it did, what would happen?"

I tried not to flinch at the idea. In a sense I'd been lucky in that the pain had hit ten or fifteen minutes before the first attack had hit.

"Is this normally what happens?"

My head shifted a bit further to the left, lowering in shame. "Lately."

She let out a soft hiss through her teeth. "I want you to rig something inside your armor, a pill box, a dispenser, whatever. Would taking them prior to the onset help?"

One of my shoulders twitched. "I have no idea, Doctor on Illium just told me to take them once the pain started. I'll contact her. Maybe there's something weaker I could take before missions."

"Good." A hand grabbed my chin and forcibly jerked it into a neutral position. "My second in command does not show shame. _Ever._ "

"Yes ma'am." The response was entirely reflexive. Fuck, what in Athame's grace was it with me and Batarian women? All they had to do was narrow their eyes and turn their heads just like that and I felt like I was a ten year old in trouble.

"Good." Ayle repeated herself, stepping back and shifting her torso so that she could take a quick look at the the various screens and console stations. "Are you sufficiently recovered to discuss the list?"

Grunting, I shoved myself up from where I'd been slouched against the wall. Raising my left arm, I flicked my fingers to start up my omni-tool, the blue hard-light dutifully appearing. "Yeah."

A few more button presses and gestures brought up the abbreviated text file, helpfully labeled 'Everything that needs to be fixed next time.'

"I'm guessing the first two are my head and Shyeel's biotics?"

"Correct." Turning, she took a step backwards until she was leaning against the wall next to me. "We need someone with a silenced weapon, or pair of them to eliminate patrols and sentries as well."

I nodded carefully, the motion bringing a small bit of pain but nothing that made my vision swim. "Marcus I think."

"Not Voya?"

"Maybe a lighter pistol, but that would leave her vulnerable if a Krogan gets close."

The standing Reyja'krem hummed softly. "True. Would she be averse to carrying a third weapon?"

I considered it for a moment before shrugging in the Asari way. "Probably not, but honestly she's not really the.. stealthy type. She could probably polarize her visor to deal with the glowing eyes problem, but her temperament..."

"Her temperament is why I don't want her to have that hand cannon." Ayle shook her head tightly. "She needs to be a sniper, not close enough to use those knives of hers."

Reaching up, I scratched my chin in thought for a moment. "Maybe swap the pistols, but give her a tech launcher?"

"Or a drone turret. We'll actually be able to afford one after this mission."

"Point." Fingers shifted as I entered that onto the next line. "I'm guessing I'm the one who... why am I asking?"

"She only listens to you."

I grimaced at the reminder, as well as the technical accuracy. Voya _listened_ to me but whether or not she went along with what I had to say depended entirely on her mood, the phase of whatever moons were nearby, and a host of other factors I couldn't even begin to understand. "Right. What's next?"

"Grenades."

"Your cadre's launchers or Thul's fire-bombs?"

"The latter. He put the reserve pack he had in the shuttle to good use but he's already out again. We need more of them, the Krogan might be able to get past but the Vorcha can't."

"At least until they put them in armor. Somewhere there's got to be a Krogan who doesn't feel like constantly replacing his cannon fodder."

"Even if that time comes," Ayle made sure her tone indicated how low of a possibility she considered it to be, "They will still keep varren away. I want him carrying at least two spare packs on his back, with another two on your armor."

"Got it." The text appeared as I typed. "Maybe give Shyeel some as well, if her biotics are as... whatever they are. Frags for variety?"

She nodded, and I entered that as well. "You'll have a reasonable budget for upgrades to your power armor as well. Did you already have improvements in mind?"

Something about the way she said improvements made it clear what she thought. "Speed isn't going to be improving Ayle. The frame is built for power, not maneuverability."

Largely because it was meant to compensate for the fact that my soldiering skills had been, well, to call them average would probably have been overly kind. These days I was... I don't know what I was. More deadly than a usual Terminus pirate probably, but I really had no idea how much of that was actual skill and how much of that was the fact that I ran around with vastly superior equipment. I was the second worst shot in the unit, for example, only a few points above Jack at the shooting range. Then again, she hardly needed to rely on her gun in combat, and four members of the unit were Batarians who had a rather sizable natural advantage.

"Nothing you can do about that? More advanced armor?"

My lips twisted. "The problem is only partly the armor, the internal skeleton was designed using a construction model as a base. So is the myomer layout. It's all meant to be durable, strong, and built from inexpensive materials and that translates to heavy. The engine is powerful enough to run a stronger eezo core, that might reduce the mass to bump my speed up. But those are not cheap."

It was her turn to frown and grunt. "No they aren't. Put that aside for now then, focus on getting the damaged plates repaired."

"Got it..." I glanced to my right with my eyes when something made the Eclipse begin to buzz amongst themselves. "Another wave?"

"I'll find out. No," A hand grabbed my shoulder and shoved me back down. "You aren't going anywhere, least of all to get into your armor."

I twitched at the fact that she already knew exactly where I'd been planning on going. Not that I enjoyed fighting, but Athame's ass I wasn't going to sit around while my companions were engaged. Especially now that the pain had receded to nothing more than a mild headache, as if I hadn't had enough caffeine. "Ayle, I'm fine now."

"Yes, but you going out there would be a distraction for them." She countered. "And Thul could use some command experience that's positive."

Grimacing, I dipped my head left to acquiesce to the order, settling back down as she moved throw the tiny command center to confer with the Eclipse Lieutenant. If anything Schneider looked even worse than he'd had when we'd first met... fuck, just this morning. The dark rings under his eyes had deepened to the point where he looked like he'd been punched, and his black hair actually glistened from how much oil and sweat was in it.

He and Ayle held a short conversation before shifting through the crowded space, the pair of them looming over an Asari as she gestured at something on her screen. Whatever it was seemed to satisfy her and greatly relieve him. An impression confirmed when he rose his voice for everyone to hear, "Reinforcements have arrived, are cycling in the shuttle airlock now!"

A ragged, exhausted cheer sounded from the technical staff at the news. "So keep at it, as soon as they have the perimeter we'll be able to get some rest!"

There was a second, slightly more approving though no less tired exclamation at that, followed by a purposeful bustle of activity as everyone prepared to direct the new arrivals to the barricade. Ayle remained involved, her omni-tool glowing as she brought our people up to date, which left me basically just sitting there, no longer in excruciating pain.

I'd just made up my mind to get up anyways and at least give my armor another once over when my ear-piece crackled to life, an annoyed feminine voice promptly sounding. " _Cieran. I'm bored. Our target is taking his fucking time."_

Athame save me. "Voya... you're in a sniper nest in a warzone, waiting for a bounty-target... and you just called me because you're _bored_."

" _Yes."_ She huffed. " _Shyeel won't talk with me."_

The Asari's voice promptly sounded as she cut herself into the call. " _How in the deeps am I supposed to say anything when you won't fucking shut up?!"_

"By the..." I had to count ten in three different languages before I could find my words. "Voya."

" _I'm capable of multitasking."_ Her voice turned annoyed. " _Now say something interesting."_

"Something interesting."

Shyeel promptly barked with laughter, proving to have a surprisingly deep bellow for her size. For her part, Voya seemed to growl as her voice lowered. " _...That was not amusing."_

" _Yes it was"_ The other sniper snickered, her usual bitchiness fading in light of finding an ally. " _Goddess, I just wish I could see your face right now. Hey, don't you dare-"_

"Voya." I snapped her name. "Knife, away. Now."

There was a hiss. " _I wasn't-"_

 _"_ I don't care if you weren't actually going to use it. Focus on your job." Reaching up with my right hand, I pinched the bridge of my nose and exhaled. "We seriously need to have a talk when we get back to the ship."

" _If by talk you mean me planting your face in the sparring mat until I tire of doing so. And you aren't going to..."_ There was a short pause, then her voice turned cold and professional. _"Target spotted, left side, that raised section."_

" _Confirmed group of Krogan."_ Shyeel snapped as I sat up straight, " _Which one is him?"_

_"Fourth from the left, stepping forwards right now, observing the fighting on the lower level. Largest and has the markings on his armor."_

_"I see him, loading spear."_ Her breathing seemed to quicken, then stop entirely as she held her breath. A moment later there was the heavy crack of her rifle.

" _Target down."_ Voya reported before her Viper snapped once, twice, and then a third time. " _Three more rounds into what's left of his head to be sure."_

Before I could speak, there was another thundering shot. " _And one more incendiary spear to be safe. Jarick?"_

It took him a moment, but the kid joined the line rather quickly. _"Confirmed, the Eclipse officer next to me says the entire Pack network just lit up with reports."_

 _"Good."_ Shyeel murmured, _"Come on, let's get out of here."_

 _"No arguments."_ The Quarian murmured. " _Cie?"_

"I'll update Ayle. Focus on getting back to the shuttle alive, we just got reinforcements here so we should be wrapping up as well." Exhaling, I slowly shoved my way up to my feet. "Hopefully their shuttle will get clear fast, once it is we can get the fuck out of here."

" _And then I can beat you for saying such a tasteless remark."_

Exhaling, I ignored that remark as best I could. At least I'd have a chance in hand to hand against her. My usual sparring partner was Thul, continuing my apparent tradition for being stuck learning hand-to-hand from people even taller and way stronger than me. "See you when you get back. Cieran out."

Cutting the line before she could mutter anything, I shuffled past a human man who was monitoring the shuttle-sized airlock as it cycled. Glancing at his screen, I couldn't help but snort at the tiny vid-image of a relaxed Salarian pilot trying to ignore an Asari Lieutenant pacing behind him.

"Cieran." Ayle glanced at me as I finished squeezing past him, "News?"

"Ganar Jion is dead, Shyeel and Voya put five rounds into him. Jarick confirmed it, they're pulling out now."

"Excellent. We'll be out of your way soon enough then." The last was directed at Schneider. "My people will pull out once the new troops are in place, then settle in the hanger until our shuttle returns."

He gave her a wry grin. "A shame Commander, we were just getting used to you."

Her down-turned nose flexed as she snorted, nodding while keeping her head perfectly neutral. "While I will admit your initial impression was poor, you've proven to be an able officer. I intend to communicate as such to Captain Hashan. Cieran may even put in a word with Sederis."

I would? The kid looked stunned, so I shrugged in the Asari way and went with it. After all why not, he'd done a solid enough job all things considered. He'd certainly been adroit in the way he'd mined and sealed all but the primary entrance, and barricaded that in depth to give them an easy location to repeatedly assault. And he'd apparently kept his people up and fighting for several days with only a faint hope for reinforcements. "Next time I see her I'll mention it."

If I timed it right, she might even care. Or I'd just send her a message. Either way, word kept.

"I..." The lieutenant stammered. "I... thank you?"

"Thanks are unrequired." Ayle waved him off. "Now, Cieran? See to your armor. Schneider, if they come while we're in the middle of rotating our people are going to be rather jammed up."

"Agreed. We should phase it, starting on the right..." I left them to it, stepping back and making my way back through the control center.

A few minutes later found me in the hanger, my helmet back on to make sure I didn't inhale any of the crap that might sneak through when the shuttle came in. Giving the massive doors and their various glowing progress lights a short glance, I turned to focus on the armor I'd left standing near the doorway. As I stared at it, I exhaled heavily and had to admit, again, that Voya had been entirely correct about there still being problems with the thing.

Several of the armor plates had obviously been loosened by the carnage rounds and other heavy shots that had hit me. The kind of thing that the damage readout in my HUD really should have told me about when it had happened, which meant... fuck. I didn't even want to think about how much time it was going to take. Especially since it definitely wasn't a programming issue with the VI, Voya had checked that out rather extensively and I know it had passed damage control tests.

Reaching out, I rapped my armored knuckles against a few of the scorched areas before turning to the _other_ problem. Using my shield as a makeshift piece of cover had seemed like a good idea at the time, and probably had let us kill a few more enemies before running than we could have otherwise. But the thing had been seriously battered in doing so. Athame, the thing was basically just a solid slab of alloyed metal with barrier nodes worked through the compressed layers, I had no idea if fixing it was something I could actually accomplish.

It might just be easier to contact Nynsi and get her engineers to give me an extra one or two. And the blueprints while they were at it.

Behind me, someone was shouting something, making me glance to see that the massive doors had opened to reveal a shuttle with Eclipse markings discharging soldiers. They seemed to be disembarking in good order, but their leader was... heading right for me.

At a run.

I barely had time to brace myself before the Asari literally crashed into me, her arms crushing me against her in a hug I was too stunned to protest before she seemed to leap back as if I was on fire.

"Goddess, I'm so sorry I just saw heard you were here and then I saw you and I got excited and-"

The voice triggered a recognition that the blank armored face of her helmet hadn't. "Wait... _Washana_?"

"You didn't..." She seemed to droop then perk up almost at once. "Goddess. I'm wearing a helmet, of course you didn't recognize me."

Her hands quickly snapped up to yank it off, Captain Wasea's daughter blinking a bit before giving me a very youthful grin. It crinkled the bright red tattoos covering her face, making them seem far less severe. "Hello sir. It's been a while."

"Yeah. It has, I mean..." I floundered, still more than a little taken aback by the physical contact. "I didn't realize the unit here was from Illium."

"Most Eclipse units are." She reminded me, sounding entirely too amused. "Mistress Sederis is raising another five regiments right now, with three more already in training. It let her dispatch our unit here."

Snorting, I shifted to lean back against my armor. "Are you supposed to be telling me that?"

"Well... I don't see the harm sir." So probably not. Her cheerful demeanor faded, becoming awkward and apologetic enough to remind me that despite being a member of the Eclipse she still was just a maiden. "I... I heard about Miss Rane."

A slow breath escaped my nose. "Trena?"

She nodded. "If... I need to go with my unit now, I'm their combat medic. But... do you think I could message you sir? About... well, my father and other things?"

"Washana, I'm..." My voice trailed for a moment before I sighed when she gave me a look that reminded me painfully of Erana begging for another sugary drink. "All right, why not."

The young Asari gave me another bright grin, another hug before I could try to bat her arms away, and then she was darting off in pursuit of the rest of her unit.

I watched her go before shaking myself a bit. There was a face I'd never expected to see again, and it seemed that her bit of hero-worship was just as strong as it had been on Illium. And Trena had told her about Rane's death.

Trena.

My eyes narrowed, a growl nearly escaping by reflex. If Scales was trying to help me by setting me up with a maiden I was going to beat her within an inch of her life. I'd have to message her... no, not her. I'd message Ghai, she'd both know and be more likely to actually tell me the truth. And if she was... ugh. Washana wasn't bad for an Eclipse sister, and I'd been genuinely fond of her father in the brief period we'd fought together.

I'd tried to get her to safety... not that it had helped. I suppose I owed her daughter what closure I could give her.

But for now... sighing, I turned back to my armor and stepped closer. For now it was time to get back inside my metal cocoon and prep for transport. And a probable sparring match with a tiny Quarian that was probably going to leave me in a whole lot of pain.

* * *

_**Citadel Morning View** _

" _...Miss Wong, surely you aren't saying what I think you are?"_

" _Of course I am. The fighting in the Terminus has galactic implications, anyone who's actually paid attention can tell you that."_

_*scoffs* "Emily, I know you're an experienced, knowledge being, but honestly. Let those barbarians have their little war, it won't have any effect on us here in Citadel space."_

" _Little war? This has all of the makings of the largest conflict since the Geth Rebellions! Millions could die, the Hegemony could expand further, and worst of all... what would happen if the Blood Pack win? What if a new Krogan Empire rises, covering the Terminus and Traverse? How safe will even this station be then?"_

* * *

_**Next up is Interlude I: Midnight Discussions** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well... our first operation is complete, both targets down and a list of things to fix completed. Of course, Cieran isn't terribly stable right now, and since Voya never has been... next chapter will be fun. :)
> 
> As an aside, the next chapter is complete. Usual game applies, twelve reviews gets it out immediately, otherwise it will release on Friday. As an aside, do people mind that I do that? In terms of releasing completed chapters rapidly if the reviews come in? Or would they rather I try to stick to a schedule?
> 
> One more note, I've put up a new poll on my profile concerning the names of the AR stories. Principally the fact that none of them indicate what order they go in. What I was wondering what you all thought of the idea of shifting the story names to: Another Ream II: Terminus, Another Realm III: Ronin, Another Realm IV: Vengeance, or if I should leave them as they are.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	6. Interlude I: Midnight Discussions

I don't own the Mass Effect. If I did, there would have been more space battles.

* * *

**Interlude I: Midnight Discussions**

_Date: 06-27-2182_

_Location: Eclipse cruiser Imminent Death_

* * *

Jerking awake with a heavy breath, I resisted the urge to snap upright, forcing my trembling body to remain still beneath the thin blanket even as my subconscious tried to demand I call out to the person I'd just watched die.

Again.

Exhaling slowly, I forced my hands together over my stomach, entwining my fingers to stop them from shaking. Dammit. It wasn't every night, but it was close. Even chehala wasn't helping as much anymore, probably because I'd been smoking the leaves for months now. Maybe I needed more, or maybe it was time to admit I needed something stronger. Then again, chehala would knock out a human who wasn't used to it for half a day with little difficulty.

Groaning as quietly as I could, I separated my hands to rub furiously at my face. My braided goatee bristled against my palms, the sensation helping bring me entirely out of the nightmare. I supposed I should be grateful that they were at least consistent these days. Instead of the oh so lovely variety I'd gotten to deal with over the past two years, now it was just the same fucking one over and over and over.

Then again, considering the content... I'd take the variety.

My bunk creaked slightly as I slowly worked on getting my breathing back under control, and belatedly realized how sweaty I was.

The noise wasn't loud, but it was apparently enough to summon a pair of glowing orbs of light across the room, the predator's eyes blinking slowly before my roommate let out a chuffing breath of her own. "Again?"

"Go back to sleep Voya."

Her eyes seemed to roll before swinging upright as she forced herself to sit up, then vanished as I heard the Quarian woman yawn. "Same one?"

Exhaling, I turned my head back to stare at the dark ceiling. "It's always the same one these days."

Orange light flared to blinding life, making me wince as she activated her omni-tool. She yawned again while my eyes adjusted, eventually able to properly see the petite alien woman on the other side of our tiny cabin.

She'd removed her suit, as she usually did whenever she could, reveling in the simple freedom of wearing as little as she could get away with. Not that the room was airtight, she'd had a wicked cough since we'd gotten back aboard the ship, but it would have taken Athame herself to get her to wear the stupid thing if it wasn't absolutely necessary.

For sleeping, that meant black gauze wrapped around her small chest and most of her upper stomach, along with simple shorts that stretched down to her oddly shaped knees. It also showed off the fact that very much had hair on more of her body than just the crown of her head, a fine layer of bristly white strands covering most of the visible parts of her legs and arms, as well as sections of her torso and all of her back. Above all of that, her alien face was contorted in yet another exhausted yawn, her forked tongue stretching out in a fashion I'd have called adorable if I'd wanted to have her throttle me for vocalizing such. Eventually she found her breath, her oversized and glowing eyes flicking back open from above her sharp cheekbones, her gray skin oddly textured in the lighting.

"Didn't I tell you to go back to sleep?"

"Probably, you tell me a lot of things. I tune most of them out."

I could only sigh. "You never listen."

"Sometimes I do."

"Sometimes." I echoed. "You just implied that you never did."

The Quarian turned her little gray nose up at me. "I did no such thing."

I rolled my eyes at that, but was grateful for the mild banter all the same. It kept my mind off of crap and she knew it. I did the same on the not uncommon occasions when her own mind wouldn't let her sleep. Of course her nightmares were quite a bit worse than mine, at least, in my opinion.

For her part, she seemed to quite disagree. She still seemed to think that being mentally blasted by an Asari Matriarch was a deeper violation than being gang-raped and then having one's throat sliced open. I didn't quite get that, but then again I didn't get a lot about Voya.

Exhaling slowly, I let my body fall back until I was laying on my back again. "Are you going to go to sleep?"

"Are you?"

Obvious answer was obvious. "What time is it?"

"Middle of the night cycle." Of course it fucking was. It would have been too convenient for it to be right before our alarms would have gone off. Feet quietly hit the ground, the soft skin padding across the metal as the orange light vanished. "Move over."

Sighing, I did so, her fever-warm body dropping into place beside me once I was on my side and resting against the bulkhead. She wasn't actually touching me, but I could still feel the heat emanating from her small frame. This close her eyes gave me enough light to see the edges of her face, and I could hear her stiff hair rustling as she adjusted herself. "I beat on you for an hour, and you had your chehala."

Grunting, I shifted a hand to tap at her stomach, my fingers poking about where I thought one of her bruises was. "You won six falls to four, don't make it sound like you beat me up."

A hand shoved mine away, before rapping at my one chest and making me hiss. _"_ I _did_ beat you up Cie. I also crushed your ego, and I don't mean in the fighting."

I snorted. "You telling Jack every reason you think I'm ugly as a Fagnshark hardly crushed my ego."

Honestly it had been more amusing than anything else. In the wake of Voya and I working out our mutual irritation by pummeling one another, Jack had felt the need to ask if our sex was that violent. Apparently just the fact that we shared a room indicated that we obviously had to be sleeping with one another, and she hadn't believed that we weren't even when Ayle, who knew better, supported our denials.

So instead Voya had elected to list everything she found 'objectionable' about me. My eyes were too small, my hair was the color of dirt, my hands were disgustingly shaped, my shoulders weren't nearly wide enough, and I had ears. That was just to name a few of the highlights, she'd gone into far more detail of course, mostly to keep the crowd watching happy. Once she'd finished she'd pulled the human biotic aside, and the pair had spoken privately for a while.

She hadn't really told me what about when I'd asked, saying only that she'd informed Jack of just why she slept in the same room with me, why nothing was happening between us, and that the damaged woman had understood perfectly.

I hadn't pried further.

"It _might_ have hurt more if I actually wanted you as a partner."

There was a low growl. "Are you calling me ugly, human?"

My eyes rolled. "We've been over this. You're weird, not ugly."

"Weird." She huffed the word out. "Is hardly an improvement."

"You're also _tiny."_ I heavily stressed the last word. "I mean, goddess. You don't even come up to my chin."

The Quarian sniffed in disdain. "It is hardly my fault that you are a towering freak."

"Freak? That's a rather rude thing to call someone."

"So is weird."

"I said you _looked_ weird, not that you were... seriously?" I paused our argument when my omni-tool snapped to life, the blue hard-light around my left wrist pulsing with a new message. "Did we drop out of FTL to ping a buoy?"

Her own wrist computer flicked open as she queried the ship's systems. "We're about to transition a relay, should be docking at Omega when we were supposed to wake up."

"Ah." I'd completely forgotten that we were that close. Shifting my fingers around, I touched the appropriate panels to open my inbox and promptly groaned at the sender. "Sederis. She must have finally gotten back to Nos Astra."

"Keelah. You think your friend told her everything?"

Bracing myself, I opened the message, read the first line, and promptly grimaced. "She did."

"Keelah." She repeated, shifting closer so that she could better read the message. "She doesn't seem happy with you."

I twitched the shoulder pressing against hers. "Neither were you."

It was her turn to shrug a little, not really denying it.

That had been an... interesting conversation, to say the least. I'd been prepared to delay and dodge at first, only remembering that I'd promised her that I'd tell her what I'd given to Trena to give Sederis. Rather than risk trying to explain it in person, I'd given her my omni-tool and let her read the will I'd composed for scales... fuck, it felt like forever ago now.

While she read, made scoffing noises, then irritated ones, then confused ones, I'd tried to work my way through my own thoughts on my past. The conclusions I'd come to... weren't ones that made me happy. When Voya had finished reading, she'd twisted her face and been obviously prepared to lay into me before I'd held up a hand, sat back, and worked through everything from Omega. Rane and Illyan's assumptions, the conversation with Krom and how he had seemed to know me.

I think it had strangely reassured her, realizing how fucked up my head seemed to be. She'd restrained herself from yelling at me for not telling her sooner when I admitted I'd never even told Rane, and after that we'd quickly burned through theories before settling on a few salient points.

One, a confirmed fact. The Matriarch had done something to my head, as well as Krom's, giving us knowledge of a possible future. Why she had framed it in the context of a game and other media, how she'd gotten that information, and just how the fuck she'd managed to mind-fuck us to that degree remained unknown. It was also entirely possible that the 'games' that I had knowledge of were different than Krom's, or the still unknown Chosen One's, or the other prototype's. Fuck, for all I knew Nihlus was the true hero to them, and Shepard was just a poor Spectre-candidate who died early to galvanize him.

Two, mostly conjecture. Whoever I'd been before the Matriarch had fucked with me, I'd had very intimate knowledge of both mechanical systems as well as Batarians. A few months of working for Trena and living with Nynsi in no way explained just how quickly I'd been able to 'adapt' to my new environment, how easily I'd 'learned' both of the major Batarian languages, or how I'd so easily shifted my body mannerisms to the those of a Batarian rather than that of a human. And my instinctual gut reaction to slavery implied... well, it was pretty obvious what it implied.

"Wait..." Voya's voice brought my back to the message, her wide eyes narrowing at a line. "Gears' investigations have started to show progress, and she may have a lead on Xentha related to your past."

I blinked, scanned through several paragraphs that mostly consisted of her berating me for every believing the stupid shit that Matriarch T'Ravt had put into my head, then found the line. "...that's..."

"Too fast." Her voice lowered to a growl. "Far too fast for having just been given the information. This Gears, Trena, whatever her name is must have been looking for quite a while, especially if she found a lead on Xentha. It is not the kind of place where you find anything quickly, even if you are friendly with T'Ravt."

My lips pressed together as I tried to process that. The keyword there was 'tried', Trena was... even not having seen her for so long, she was still Scales. Sure she could have easily cracked my omni-tool and taken the file when we'd been living together, but why would she? "We'll deal with that when we're on Illium. For now, we have to focus on the rest of this."

"Cieran, if she-"

"Voya." Her body went still at the snap in my voice. "Later."

There was a quiet huff, followed by her best attempt at an annoyed Batarian seething-sigh, but she subsided. "Fine. When can we get to Xentha to talk to... who is the contact?"

"Nish'Tulim vas Xentha." I continued to read, eyes flicked over the text. "He's a retired records manager apparently, but should still have access we can use. We can find him in the Old District, whatever that is."

Voya didn't say anything for a moment before she seemed to sigh. "The Old District is home, Cieran. You'll need me with you, my people don't... care for outsiders."

"You mean they shoot at them?"

"Shooting at them would imply they might miss, and that your body wouldn't be left hanging from the walls as a warning to other intruders. Only T'Ravt's personal representatives or people escorted by one of us are allowed in, and even then they aren't exactly made welcome."

My lips twisted, but I couldn't honestly say I was surprised. "My first leave is already set for Illium when Ghai is due... looks like the next vacation is set for Xentha whenever we can be spared for a few weeks. Probably early next year if the war cooperates. Unless you want to go there while I'm in Nos Astra?"

"I'm going with you to your home." She reminded me irritably. "You need someone to watch you, and I'll need someone doing the same on Xentha."

"Sensible." I twitched a shoulder again, returning to reading. There wasn't much more, nothing that seriously worried me. For the most part she was annoyed that I'd 'fallen for' such an stupid concept, but mixed it with amused gratitude that I _had_ kept it quiet and now given all of the information to her rather than someone else. Most of the rest was her asking for clarifications on a few things I'd laid out, principally concerning herself and how Shepard tore through her people in the second game. And how the fuck she'd ended up in a C-Sec jail in the third. There was a final note at the end though, that was slightly more interesting.

"...a lot of what you said sounded moronic when I read it, however at Gears' request I sat back and thought about it for some time. I do not care for the conclusions I have come to. We will talk at length when next you are on planet." Groaning, I shut the stupid device off and reached up to pinch the bridge of my nose. "Athame's ass, that conversation is going to be just fucking lovely."

"You can't possibly be surprised."

"I'm not. Just..." I exhaled. "I don't want _more_ complications in my life, I've got enough of those without this shit."

"You're the one who always tells me no one is ever full up on complicated."

My lips twitched a little at the Xerol-ism. "Doesn't mean I have to like it."

"Point." She let out a long yawn, this time keeping her tongue in her mouth. "We still haven't talked about your Reapers or whatever they are."

No, we hadn't. We'd been more concerned about... well, about me, egotistical as it was. "The Reapers aren't something you and I can exactly prep for."

Th Quarian grunted, then shifted a bit, knocking some of my hair out of her way before firmly pushing me flush with the bulkhead behind me and claiming most of my pillow for herself. "Then it was probably a good idea to tell Sederis."

Wasn't _that_ a fucking terrifying thought. "She's not exactly stable."

She paused, her voice lowering to something quiet and vulnerable. "And we are?"

My eyes closed slowly as I breathed out a soft sigh, then carefully reached around her waist to pull her tiny frame against me. She didn't protest, her oddly rigid hair bristling as our foreheads bumped together. "No. Guess we aren't."

We laid like that for ten or fifteen minutes in silence, just breathing and taking inordinate comfort from being beside someone just as damaged. She broke the quiet first, her voice low. "We stay with the plan then. Find Krom, give him to Aria. If that human colony is attacked by the Geth and the Reaper controlling them..."

"...we work with Sederis to give the other warlords the information." I closed my eyes and tried not to think about how much of headache that would be. "We'll probably need to kill the Shadow Broker and put someone in his place. If the information came from him, and his agents started preparing crap..."

"...there's a chance Aria would listen." Warm breath tickled my face as she exhaled. "But that won't be easy Cie. Isn't that Spectre, Vasir? Isn't she one of his?"

I winced, remembering quite clearly just how Tela Vasir had _obliterated_ entire units of Blue Suns and True Son elites like they'd been nothing. "Yeah. Sederis would have to handle her, or maybe we could convince her to help."

"Because we're _so_ charismatic." She grunted when I gave her a light punch to the side. Just because it was true didn't mean she'd had to point it out. "Fine, maybe Sederis can capture her or something then. And that's not including the fact that you don't remember what planet that Yahg is even on."

Either I didn't remember or that information hadn't been 'included'. "Maybe Vasir knows where he is... shit. I..."

A three fingered hand touched my chest after a brief moment. "I told you you had it worse than me. I never had to question who I was, my own memories."

I hadn't either. Not until recently, anyways. But once I'd started... I'd found it difficult as shit to stop. Athame... it was... how much of me was me? If I hated slavers and thought like a Batarian, was I actually chivalrous and devoted to my friends? Or was that something that the Matriarch had just programmed into me, like I was just some machine she was toying with? What if...

"Cieran." Voya's voice turned slightly worried as my breathing quickened.. "Chehala?"

I managed a tight nod, and her warmth vanished as twisted around, leaning over the side of the bunk to rummage through one of the shelves built beneath it. She hauled herself back up a few moments later, a small metal pipe and a bag in her odd hands. A few minute later saw us both sitting upright, smoke slowly curling out of the bowl as I puffed on the burning leaves in gross disobedience of shipboard ordinances. Normally smoking anything was restricted to specific locations, but there was no way I was going to get up and walk all the way down to the nearest lounge.

Besides, Voya had disabled the room's fire alarms about thirty seconds after we'd been given the cabin.

While I focused on the process of smoking, she brought her omni-tool up and started to go through the news. Omega's news sources were hardly the best, but they at least covered what was happening in the Terminus. The Citadel ones were all freaking about some Asari vid-star's dress, apparently green just wasn't her color.

Seriously. There was a war covering more than a third of the fucking galaxy, and Westerlund and the Alliance News Network were covering _fashion_ as their lead.

As far as the news itself... not much of it was good for our side. Ganar had planned his war well, I'd give the Krogan that. He'd consolidated nearly all of his forces 'east' of Omega, while Zaen had done the same to the 'north'. All of his warbands and ships in the other regions had been pulled back before his first strike, ensuring that, unlike the Blue Suns, his armies wouldn't be crippled when Aria closed down the Sahrabarik relay hub. Of course, he had also ensured that there were several smaller groups roaming around, like the ones who'd attacked Denara, to make sure his enemies had plenty of issues to deal with in their own coastal waters.

"How's the fighting?" I asked after ten minutes or so, having managed to shut the doors once again in my head. For now, anyway. Time would tell how long it would take until I had another near-breakdown about how much of me was actually me.

"Rough." Voya shook her head slightly, shifting to let me read over her shoulder. "T'Ravt is getting hammered all along the Theodosius to Xentha trade line, mostly the places where they'd already been fighting with her before the open fighting started. She's holding her own but no one seems to know if she can keep that up ."

Letting out a slow stream of smoke between my lips, I carefully extinguished the pipe and shook my head. "We're heading that way next, probably for a full month. Going to be busy."

"Killing people is always cathartic at least."

"I don't think Vorcha count as people."

She shrugged. "Killing things then. How long until our leave?"

"I just said that, about a month."

"You said we'd be on missions for a month, not that we'd be on leave after."

"I implied it."

"You did not." She growled a little. "And what did I tell you about trying to imply things?"

"I have no idea."

"Liar."

I shrugged. "Probably."

Another low growl. "I am more than awake enough to bash your head into the deck Cieran."

I twitched a shoulder, as if I didn't deign to respond to such a crass threat. Sure enough, one of her gleaming eyes twitched slightly in response. She at least waited until I'd put the pipe and leaves away before grabbing my shoulders and hurling me off the bed. Of course, her amused grin vanished in a yowl of pain when I grabbed her by the hair and hauled her down as well.

I didn't win fight number eleven, tapping out when she managed to get me in a choke hold while also bending my arm in an excruciating fashion. But we both managed to collapse for a few more hours of precious sleep after.

I took that as a win.

* * *

**Nos Astra News Tonight**

_In better news, the fighting on Denara continues to wind down as the Eclipse pushes what's left of the Blood Pack forces into a tighter cordon. Civilian inspectors on planet are already examining the primary factories to evaluate repair times and costs, but investors should be pleased to note that the initial word is positive. Indications are that the Blood Pack had hoped to co-opt the facilities for themselves, and so minimal damage was done._

_The Eclipse is also likely to leave a larger garrison in place to ensure a repeat attack is not possible, and reports indicate that Madam Sederis has already contracted several construction firms to heavily increase the world's GTS defenses._

* * *

**Next up is Operation II: Uninvited Guests**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cieran and Voya have some time to themselves on the cruiser, and we find out that Cieran has finally told people about his past and actually laid out a few tentative plans. Not terribly good ones, but at least they're plans. And yes, he is a little broody in this one, but I think it's largely justified given the crap he's been through and now is worrying about. As I said before though, he's not about to turn into an angsty creature, his PHD in repressing things (credit to whatever reviewer first coined that :) ) is still well-earned, but from time to time... even he can't keep everything locked away.
> 
> Next mini-arc will see something that people have been asking about since Arrival, so hopefully they'll enjoy it. :) And I'm beyond happy that so many people reviewed the last chapter, in such a short frame of time. :) :). I've got the next one completed and waiting on the Blocked Writer to examine it. Soon as that's completed, I'll either put it out on Friday morning or when this chapter hits twelve reviews. :)
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	7. Operation: Uninvited Guests I

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

**Operation: Uninvited Guests I**

_Date: 07-29-2182_

_Location: Omega, The Terminus_

* * *

"This is a bad plan." I kept my voice low, not that I really needed to. There was enough general chatter in the pub that I doubted anyone was listening in. "A seriously bad plan."

Ayle gave me a severe look over the top of her drink. "Cieran."

I twitched a shoulder, glad for the fact that it was just her and I in the small booth. Everyone else was up at the bar, enjoying our short period of rest before we had to get onto the next set of ships. I'd really been hoping to join them, but Ayle had insisted on dragging me to the side to go over our next missions... and the change in plans. "What? It is."

"It is a logical division of labor." She shook her head slightly as her glare faded. "Especially as both missions are now time-critical."

Sighing, I leaned back in my chair and took a slow sip from my Illium Moonrise. "Taking your team after that asteroid mine, and sending us into the Traverse after a slaver? Sure, twice the pay and we accomplish them, but that's just five people on one, four on the other. And since my armor isn't going to be ready until Nynsi gets here with the parts I need to fix that fucking knee actuator, my team is going to be a bit light."

Her upper eyes blinked at the news. "Ah, you've heard from her then?"

"Yeah." I twitched a shoulder. "She's negotiating with T'Ravt for a new run of the tech mines, plus some armor manufacturing plant she bought up. Should be on station after our next mission."

Which meant there was a chance that I would see Nynsi Shaaryak in person again. I was rather... conflicted about that.

"For you, that will be Carastes."

"Ayle." Arms crossed as she tilted her head a few degrees further to the right. "All right, yes ma'am. Carastes to hunt a slaving asshole it is."

"Cieran, I'm about as thrilled as splitting our forces as you are, but time isn't on our side." Air hissed between her teeth. "The mine facility is an open bounty, if we don't get there soon someone else will. And given that Sederis indicated that her people reported an Asari present with the Blood Pack..."

"Odds say she either one of Zaen's, or she's one of Krom's." My fingers tightened briefly around my drink. "And since my armor is down, your team is better suited to take her."

"And given that the raiding ships carrying T'Ravt's people are en route to Carastes, we need someone there to free them before they can be sold to the highest bidder." Her lower eyes narrowed in warning. "And don't you dare tell me that you told me so when it came to making that arrangement with T'Ravt. You promised Sederis quite a bit as well."

I had, so I dipped my head and held my tongue. We were at least done with the Eclipse's preliminary missions now, which was a relief. The first two missions on Denara had at least been interesting, the follow-up pair had been less so. Locating and demolishing an underground supply dump on an ice-ball of a planet had been more boring than anything else, Jack and I had more or less accomplished that one by ourselves, taking the lead and just smashing through the pirates trying to stockpile equipment to sell to the Blood Pack.

The second had started off boring and ended up being harrowing. We'd landed on Erinle, ignoring the local Salarian authorities to help an Eclipse regiment take out a Blood Pack raiding force. We'd set up in a nice little firebase, letting Shyeel and Voya snipe out Krogan while the rest of us killed anything that tried to get to them. It had worked out fine until the war-leader had showed up with his personal guard and several missile launchers, and promptly bombarded the crap out of us.

Hesh and Marcus had gotten battered around rather badly, and our snipers had had to bail when their building had taken more than a few hits. To add to the fun, my armor had taken some bad hits on the right side that left me nearly immobile. Jack of all people had come through for us there, having Thul lob his grenades into the air before she swatted them down-range with her biotics. The resulting napalm-strikes had left the enemy very dead, and let us limp back to the shuttles. Or in my case, shuffle along with my locked-up right leg dragging along behind me.

It also left me limping slightly, though the Eclipse medics assured me nothing was seriously damaged. They shot me up with something that was supposed to accelerate the healing, and recommended I use my cane for a few days.

Taking another small pull from my drink, enjoying the mixed fruit flavor with the distinctly bitter aftertaste of Asari liquor, I refocused on the new mission. "So. Carastes then."

"Yes." Shifting a bit, she brought her tablet out and laid it on the table between us. "Your target is this man, Ghen ul Ishiak. Midcaste exile from the warrior caste. Caught embezzling military funds to attempt to further his brother's ambition, they were both cast out in one of the few sensible things that the Balak family has done in the recent decade."

"I'd rather not compliment the guy who wants us both dead."

"Neither would I, but Ghen is likely the kind of person who would make you wish to." Her posture shifted to one of marked disgust. "I met his brother once, if the two are anything alike we are doing the galaxy a favor even without T'Ravt wishing his death."

Grunting, I leaned forwards to take a look at the information she'd pulled up. "He hit one of her colonies didn't he?"

"He hit several, with enough firepower to get through her second-line militia and abduct a large number of local artisans. Fortunately, he also took more than a few prisoners from amongst the fighters, particularly Turian females." The rush of anger must have shown on my face, because her lips curled at the edges. "I do believe you will enjoy this, as will Voya. Our orders from T'Ravt are to locate her people, free them, arm them, and then to eliminate his entire operation."

Well she was definitely right about me enjoying the idea. "Are we expecting him to have a large force?"

"Large enough for him to have struck at several of her worlds, as well as several Alliance colonies in the Traverse. However, if he follows the usual routine he'll give most of his people leave as soon as they land. It gets them out from under his eyes and allows him to focus on finding buyers." And probably reduced the chances that any of his people would try to grab a slave or two for free while they sat around. "But that could still leave him with a sizable force to keep his cargo secure. You will need to rely on stealth and Voya hacking whatever defenses he has until you have the prisoners armed."

"Assuming he has an armory we can get them to."

She nodded slightly. "Assuming that. If you can't locate one, seizing one of his ships is also a possibility. You will likely need to do so regardless to get them off world."

I winced. "Isn't Carastes a slavers den? Where they'd take a dim view of something like that?"

"Normally yes, but you aren't doing this for vigilante reasons." Ayle paused, then corrected herself. "You aren't _openly_ doing this for vigilante reasons. Once you have released T'Ravt's people broadcast you are her agent, and that you are returning her people to her. Most of the other pirates and slavers operating there have yet to pick a side."

"And opening fire on us would immediately put them on T'Ravt's kill list." I nodded slowly, finding myself relaxing a bit. "What about other slaves? You said he raided Alliance colonies?"

Her lower eyes flicked to the tablet and touched a line. "Release them as well, if possible ensure they can get to a ship of their own to flee in."

It took me a few moments to puzzle that out before I grunted in realization. Cultured or not, the Lady Warlord hadn't gotten to her position by having morals. Releasing them wasn't kindness, it was politics. The Corsairs were probably still harrying her people, even though she was entirely focused on the war rather than raiding the Verge or human colonies elsewhere in the Traverse. Freeing a bunch of captured citizens might make them sit back and be confused for a while, and if it didn't it hardly cost her anything.

Still... this was hardly the kind of run I was used to doing. "Ayle..."

"Cieran." The other Reyja'krem narrowed all of her dark eyes at me. "Not every mission is going to be letting our snipers deal with a target, or search and eliminate. Do I need to quote the Pillar of Wisdom?"

"Ugh, no. I hear enough of that from Thul." Reaching up, I ran a hand through my long hair, glancing over to the bar where everyone else was still having relative amounts of fun. "Who gets Jarick?"

"I'll need him, we'll be coordinating with an Eclipse unit to ensure our target doesn't escape."

I grimaced before throwing back the last dregs of my drink. That would leave my intelligence to whatever Voya could glean from hacking systems. Which she was good at, but it wasn't the same as Jarick being able to multi-task as he gave us information and coordinated with the locals. "Are we going to have any support?"

"Not likely. T'Ravt can provide transport, but it will obviously be running under false identification. As for ground support... from what little she's told me, it seems as though all of her own commando teams are on-mission. It's all she can do to hold the line right now."

"Which is why she wants this idiot killed and her people back." My head shook minutely. "Sends a message that she can still deal with people fucking with her, and gets her some fighters back. Of course that leaves us stuck doing the work."

"Did you expect this to be easy?"

"No." I scowled at my empty glass. "But I'll admit to hoping. Another drink?"

"I think we've had enough." She flicked a pair of eyes to the time on her tablet. "My team needs to get moving if we're going to get back to the _Death_ before she departs for our target. We'll have your personal affairs delivered to T'Ravt's base in Gozu."

"Make sure no one fucks with my armor." I reminded her, rising as she did, pulling a low denomination credit chit out of a pocket and tossing it onto the table. Tip in place, I shifted to grab my cane from where I'd left it leaning against the booth before shuffling out to stretch beside the table. "Some of those mechanics were eying it."

"It'll be there, still just as battered and without any parts missing."

Muttering that it had better be, I waited for her to pass before moving to her left side, following a half-step behind her as the pair of us headed to the bar proper. The long groans from just about everyone when she announced that our break was over was fairly predictable, as was Jack bitching that she and Marcus had been about to rent a room. The Batarian woman had merely sighed before continuing on, rounding up her squad members and dragging Jarick from where he'd been interrogating the amused bartender about how they'd made whatever it was he'd been eating.

While she did that, I grabbed my own team, all of whom seemed more than a little surprised when I told them to say their goodbyes for a week or two. Once that was done, and I'd politely bowed my head in deference to Ayle, I made sure that Thul and Shyeel had gotten their helmets back on before donning mine.

"All right Cieran." The former priest rumbled as the four of us exited the restaurant, stepping out into Afterlife's District. "Why aren't we going to the mining facility with the others?"

"Time." I twitched a shoulder, flexing my right leg a bit before twirling my cane to carry it in one hand rather than use it properly. "That slaver who hit T'Ravt broke off his attacks earlier than she expected, he's already heading to Carastes."

"We're going after a slaver?" Voya's head whipped my direction, gleaming eyes widening.

"Yes, and yes, if we get the chance you can indulge yourself." She let out an almost sexual sound of pleasure that I really didn't need to hear. "It's going to be... different."

Shyeel, who'd taken a step away from the Quarian next to her, grunted. "I don't like the sound of that Kean."

I didn't either, but I couldn't very well admit that. Like it or not, I was 'in command' of the four of us, which meant I was stuck looking like I knew what I was doing, and that I agreed with whatever Ayle decided. "We won't have back-up from T'Ravt, her Talon teams are holding the line. Objective is simple: Get in, find an armory, find her captured troops, get the latter to the former."

To my lack of surprise, she wasn't thrilled about that plan. Thul couched his concerns more tactfully, but more or less agreed with her. Voya, true to form, didn't care. We were killing slavers, I could have told her we were doing a full frontal attack with just the four of us and she probably wouldn't have blinked. Eventually she'd stop day dreaming about it and think things through, but it likely wouldn't be anytime soon.

On the bright side, at the time I only had to work my way through two people's objections and concerns rather than three. Given that I'd just done the same with Ayle, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Mostly I just repeated what she'd said, which assuaged them enough that we were able to actually discuss tactics by the time we were sitting in an air-taxi as it piloted itself down towards Gozu.

"All right, so if we land here." Shyeel pointed at the tablet Thul was holding for us, her finger landing on one of the place's many landing zones. She and he were in the back, while Voya and I were twisted around as best we could be in the front seats. "That's close the main control center. We get Voya in, she hacks shit and finds where this Ghen is."

Scratching my beard, I nodded before jabbing at three other spots. "It's likely to be one of these three. He's got a sizeable group, those have the capacity for his ships and are also close to the local entertainment centers."

The Asari grunted. "Easier to recall his people if the cargo starts making waves."

"Exactly." Considering the map for a few more moments, I shook my head slowly when nothing jumped up and screamed 'he'll be at this one'. "How many people did the report say he took?"

"Sixty or seventy soldiers, probably three times as many civilians." Thul rumbled. "Standard procedure would leave at least fifty to sixty guards, but I doubt he'll be conventional. Especially with the majority of his... take being human colonists. They are easier to keep contained, especially if he simply leaves them in his ships until it is time to sell."

He blinked slowly when both Voya and I gave him less than pleasant looks. "I _am_ a Batarian, slavery and its procedure are not unknown to me. Though I do find myself rather annoyed at the mix of politicization and arbitrary decisions that permeate the practice."

I grunted, if not entirely mollified then at least calmed. My companion was less so. "Thul. Your opinion."

"On our target or upon slavery?" He dipped his head politely. "The former is simple, he is our target, and his exile was just and proper from the information given. The latter is... not something we have the time to discuss during this short flight, and regardless, I quite understand your hatred of it."

Voya's gleaming eyes remained narrow. "We have three minutes."

Shyeel groaned, settling back into her seat and taking her tablet with her, clearly prepared to tune out the conversation. For my part I simply sighed and resigned myself to not getting any more planning done until we were on whatever ship T'Ravt had for us.

"Slavery, as inscribed in the rings beneath the Pillars of Strength, is a punishment." Thul spoke slowly and calmly, clearly choosing each word with care. "It is not intended to be permanent, nor is it intended to be abusive. By the wisdom of the Pillars, criminals of my people should be sentenced to terms proportionate to their crime, and be forced to repay the damage they have done through work."

"Nice theory, such a shame that it doesn't work." I twitched a shoulder. "No more than the rules and regulations concerning exile on the Pillar of Unity."

He winced as the barb struck rather close to home. "No, it does not. Much like you say, it has been warped, abused, and essentially defiled. For the most part, within the Hegemony, the wisdom of the Pillars is heeded, but only when it comes to my people. It... took me a while to realize that aliens were not afforded such protection, even on Khar'shan."

By which he probably meant he'd been naïve as a kid. Sure, from what Nynsi had once told me, and what I'd learned on my own, largely corroborated with what he was telling Voya. In the Hegemony proper, Batarians were enslaved for terms of service based on crimes they committed, and then released when the term was up. At least, if you were a highborn. Or sometimes midcaste I supposed, if you knew the right people or had enough money. Lowborn? Aliens? Enjoy what's left of your life, because it was probably going to be a living hell.

"Protection?" Voya flicked her gaze between me and him.

I merely shrugged, I didn't know much more than the basics, but Thul nodded slightly. "Protection, Miss Voya. Abuse towards a slave, such as that which you suffered, should result in the freedom of the one such abused. And those who harmed them placed within chains of their own. Of course, one must also consider the problems of integrating aliens into Batarian law, which is a massive topic unto itself."

"As Ciearn said, that sounds like a wonderful concept." Her sarcasm wasn't quite as thick as mine but it was close. "What about as it's done elsewhere? What is your opinion on _that_?"

"That it is an abomination before the Pillars." He split his gaze between us. "Do not misunderstand, I support the practice but only as the Pillars decree. Those who would use it to exploit and abuse deserve whatever you are able to do unto them."

"Pleasant words. Live by them, or you will wake to find your throat opened."

Thul seemed more bemused than afraid. "In which case I would hardly wake up."

Glowing eyes narrowed to slits before she turned around in her chair, resolutely facing forwards. "Of course you would, I would ensure you suffered."

"If I failed in my faith, I would accept such a death." A chill ran down my spine at the... pure _certainty_ in his words. He literally meant it, that he would accept Voya fucking torturing him to death if he faltered. Athame's ass, was I like a magnet for odd people or something? How did they always seem to end up near me... "Now, I do believe we are arriving at the landing pad. Perhaps a more pleasant discussion awaits?"

"Athame willing." I muttered, Shyeel grunting agreement as the automated taxi settled onto the landing pad.

The guards were apparently expecting us, though I didn't personally recognize any of them. It worked out, I wasn't really in the mood for small talk. Once we'd cleared the landing pad, gotten directions to the command center, and descended into Gozu proper, things were more or less the same as they'd been the last time I'd been there. Engineers, both wearing T'Ravt's markings and local civilians, still running around and trying to make the place less of a slum, while troops in off-white armor bustled about in the organized chaos of a military camp.

I did have to give them credit for proper security at least, the four of us were stopped three times during the short walk as guards demanded to know who we were and just where we were going. In all three cases a quick call up their chain of command cleared us, but most remained less than thrilled about having us there.

But it wasn't until we reached the command center proper that we were stopped entirely, a young Turian with a pair of much larger kin blocking the entrance.

"I don't care _who_ you are or the fact that you got this far." His flanging voice growled, the blue-painted mandibles quivering tightly. "Freelancers aren't allowed into the command center."

"We're expected." I repeated myself for the fourth fucking time, both hands resting on the cane I'd planted in front of myself. "If you would simply contact your superiors you could confirm that."

"I have no need to confirm an obvious lie."

My helmet hid the annoyed twitch, but not the way my head was kinked very much to the right and down. Dammit. If this moron had been Eclipse things would have been easier. Sederis wouldn't have given a shit if we threatened or harmed him. But T'Ravt played a different game, which meant I was stuck trying to be polite.

Well, _appearing_ to be polite anwyway. If I struck first that was no good. But if I had to defend myself... well, tough shit for him.

Exhaling tightly, I forced my fingers not to draw either of my weapons. "Then if you could simply pass a message to the Lady Warlord, and indicate my sincere apologies that her people have been sold into slavery, but that it could have been avoided if her security guards were... _competent._ "

The young officer seemed to freeze, then lower himself somewhat. Which was a bad sign, from what I recalled, it meant his muscles were tensing in preparation to leap and claw at whatever was in his sights. Of course, neither of the guards behind him had so much as twitched, and one seemed to let out a quiet cough that sounded suspiciously like an amused chortle before he controlled himself.

"Did you just imply I am not fit for my position? That my sire promoted me beyond me station?"

Oh, lovely. "I intended for you to hear and deliver the message I just gave you. If you elected to read further into my words, I can only be amazed that you have the capacity to do so."

A definite laugh from his subordinates that time. It was probably what really set him off.

Turians were stupidly fast despite their size, to the point where most humans would never stand a chance against one in hand-to-claw combat. Since I wasn't one of those select few freaks of nature, I had to rely on more mundane things like preparation, and the experience of having had Dorvahn beat the crap out of me more times than I could count.

He leaped forwards in a blur of motion, but unfortunately for him, I wasn't where I'd just been. From the breath I'd offered the first insult, I'd slowly tensed my own body, preparing to get the fuck out of the way the instant I caught him about to move.

Twisting to the right, I shoved off from the ground with my cane and cleared his outstretched claws by a millimeter. Not stopping my motion, I let myself stagger backwards while whirling my cane up into a baseball-bat position, hesitated for a split second, then planted my feet and slammed it across his plated face when he shifted directions, one hand already drawn back to try and pummel me.

I might not have been large, but my cane wasn't exactly light either. The idiot dropped to my feet in a clatter of armor, yowling and clutching at a mandible that was very obviously broken. Grimacing at the way my heart was pounding, I shifted, planting my cane against his face to get him to shut up as I stared down at him.

"Always wear a helmet when on duty." His golden eye blinked rapidly as I tiredly lectured him. "Otherwise you've got a giant sign saying 'hit-me-right-here' above your head. Now, are you going to contact your superiors to let us in, or should-"

"That won't be necessary." A smooth, nearly musical voice cut me off... and made my mouth go dry. "An impressive, though brief, performance, Reyja'krem Kean."

Swallowing, I turned carefully to see the Warlord standing in the entrance to her command center, half-surrounded by six massive Turians. She was dressed much as she had been the last time I'd seen her, in white armor of such a quality that I couldn't begin to fathom how much it had cost. Her dusky blue skin was nearly as dark as the navy of my armor, while the few scars that touched her cheek and lips seemed to accentuate her natural beauty rather than detract from it.

"Lady Warlord T'Ravt." I bowed my head deeply to the left, feeling more than seeing Thul do the same. "As lovely as the seas, just as you were the last we spoke."

Her dark lips curled as she let out a quietly pleased sound. "I'd forgotten how appropriate your manners are, though you do not seemed surprised that I know your true name now."

"I have largely abandoned any pretense of subtly at this point, Lady Warlord." To stop my fingers from figiting I wrapped them around my cane, absently removing the latter from where it had been keeping the idiot planted into the ground. "I assumed Sederis, or perhaps Ayle, informed you."

"The former, though perhaps that conversation can wait for another day." For a moment I swore that she actually looked disappointed by that. "You are intending to retrieve my people from Carastes, yes?"

"We are."

T'Ravt's eyes flicked between the four of us, her smile not faltering in the slightest. "Reyja'krem Ayle must be truly confident in your skills, to send the four of you alone. I find myself eager to see the results of your work, Reyja'krem Kean. Vathi? If you would be so kind as to give the Silver Blades the details of their transportation?"

One of her guards nodded, "Of course ma'am."

Giving me a final, too-amused look, she turned and headed back inside without another word.

So now she was going to personally be interested in the outcome of this mission, far more than she probably would have been otherwise. Dammit. I'd been hoping to just get past the idiot guard and find someone who knew what ship we were on, then get out before we ran into her.

Although... just what the fuck was she doing on Omega still? Why wasn't she on Xentha, or her flagship? It couldn't have been easy to run her part of the war from here, especially given how recently she'd taken over. There was no way it could all be properly setup to coordinate campaigns and fleet actions by now, not without issues.

I shook myself a bit. This wasn't something I needed to be worrying about right now. What I needed was the ship we were traveling on, when it was leaving, and what information her subordinates could give me that would give us a chance to survive this.

Exhaling, I nodded to myself, then motioned for my companions to follow as I headed over to interrogate Vathi.

Of course, if I had known just what this fucking mission would lead to, I'd have told Ayle to swim in a fucking hurricane before I stepped foot on Carastes.

* * *

**Badass Weekly – The News Channel**

" _...first confirmed reports that the assassin Krom was located on the planet Redcliffe by a freelance team attempting to claim his bounty."_

" _By reports, we mean images that he posted on the extranet of what was left of their bodies. He certainly enjoys cutting people up."_

" _That he does. However, some of the bodies do seem to show injuries consistent with biotic strikes. Think that will help the next attempt?"_

" _I doubt it Dave. Krom likes to play with his victims, if he's revealing the fact that he's got Asari or other biotics helping him, he's doing it for a reason. Bet you a hundred credits the next team that finds him expects to fight Asari, and runs into a pack of Krogan instead."_

* * *

_**Next up is Operation: Uninvited Guests II** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a setup chapter, preparing for the next mini-arc. Cieran and Ayle work out who is doing what given that the team is separating, we hear a little bit about Thul's complex faith, and T'Ravt makes her first (but very much not last) appearance in the story.
> 
> Unfortunately I'm currently on vacation, so there won't be another chapter until at least next week... that may or may not be why I put in the nice little cliffhanger at the end. ;) Hope everyone enjoys their weekend, we'll be seeing who these uninvited guests are soon enough (expect the next two chapters to be longer than usual).
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	8. Operation: Uninvited Guests II

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

**Operation: Uninvited Guests II**

_Date: 08-05-2182_

_Location: Carastes, Attican Traverse_

* * *

**Omega Bounty Board - Ghen ul Ishiak**

_Batarian; Exiled Slaver; Age 39; Non-Biotic_

_Desc: Formerly a middle-ranking member of the warrior caste, Ghen ul Ishiak was cast out after General Balak discovered that he was embezzling large amounts of funds from military sources to fund his brother's trade campaign. The two brothers wasted little time in establishing a new racket tin the Traverse, joining the Circle's slaving ring and quickly becoming one of the largest sources of slaves taken from independent colonies in the Traverse._

_Bounty: 1,000,000 (T'Ravt – Held as a Private Contract to a unknown party)_

* * *

Carastes was not a planet I wanted to spend a minute on longer than absolutely necessary. Shit, the two days we'd been here had already been two days too many as far as I was concerned.

The capital city, unimaginatively also called Carastes, wasn't much more than a sprawling mass of prefabricated buildings huddled around a few more permanent structures. Most of the latter were the starports, along with a few hotel-casino-brothel hybrids built to serve the crew of the pirate vessels that landed. But even those had the appearance of structures thrown up in a hurry, fully capable of being abandoned without the builders having invested too much into them.

Most of that was because the place was the third world that the Traverse's largest slaving ring, which called itself the Circle, had operated on in as many decades. Its ruling body of Batarian exiles had been forced to relocate repeatedly as the Corsairs and STG harassed them, occasionally helped out by a Spectre or two. Nor did they get much support from the Terminus, none of the Warlords there had ever cared for a group that cut into their potential profits. They didn't go so far as to blacklist anyone who did trade with the Circle, but association with the group was definitely not a good way to get on anyone's good sides. Even the Blood Pack had preferred not to deal with them in the past, although Athame herself only knew how the war would affect that.

In the end, what mattered was that the entire city reeked with desperation and paranoia. Ships constantly burned through the atmosphere, landing and departing as quickly as their captains could find or sell their cargos. Gunfire, both the light but piercing sounds of mass-accelerated shot, and the heavier barks of chemically propelled rounds regularly sounded in the streets as disputes started and settled. Slaves were hawked right on the street, and nude or nearly so men and women of nearly every species tried to whore themselves out on behalf of whoever controlled the collars around their necks.

"This is even worse than Omega." Voya growled across our helmet comms, her side pressed against mine as the four of us maneuvered our way down one of the crowded main streets. "At least the upper districts had some concept of decorum."

I grunted quietly. "They did, but the rest didn't. This is probably what Gozu and the other lowers were like before the war hit them."

"Just about." Shyeel agreed, her heavy sniper rifle cradled in both hands. Thul likewise had his rifle out, the pair of them flanking Voya and I while we paid more attention to the directions on her omni-tool. "We almost there yet? Not that I don't mind getting out of that storm-wracked hotel, but that beaten down place was at least quiet."

"Quiet isn't the word I would use." Thul rumbled, stepping over... something I didn't look too hard at. "The walls were not sound-proofed in the slightest."

"So we could hear whores fake-screaming as they banged their clients, better than being fucking harassed out here."

The former priest sighed. "No, it wasn't. Cieran, please tell me you never intend to allow her to select our lodgings again?"

"Sorry Thul." I leaned down a bit to get a better look at the map on Voya's wrist, the Quarian holding it up a bit as we paused before an intersection. "It was cheap, and they didn't ask questions."

"Because they thought we were there to-"

"I don't care what they thought we were there for." I cut him off idly, tracing our route. "Left here, then another fifty meters."

"I thought you two had already scouted this out." Shyeel muttered as we resumed moving.

Voya shrugged, snapping her omni-tool off and resting a hand on her collapsed pistol. "We took a different route, there was a riot or gang fight or something."

"Ah. Well, at least we still have time."

I grunted, turning my head to the right to pointedly stare down a Batarian male who looked like he was about to approach us. He seemed to swell up at my arrogant display of superiority, then get a better look at our weapons and armor. His throat moved as he swallowed, ducking his lead to the left and scuttling backwards without offering us the red sand and dust packets he had in his hands.

"The wisdom of the Pillars has been forsaken in this place." Our own Batarian man let out a hissing sigh. "In another life perhaps I would have been here, attempting to guide them."

"Waste of time." Voya muttered, her gleaming eyes narrowing to slits to stop a strung-out human woman from approaching us with her own offer of illicit materials. "A fission bomb would be a better guide."

Shyeel chuckled quietly. "I don't think we have enough credits for one of those."

"We could always steal one." The Quarian gave her an Asari-style shrug. "Most of the people here would be better off dead than forced to live like this."

Thul sighed heavily. "Please plot genocide when I'm not present. These people need help, not death."

"Sometimes you can't help people." I murmured, memories of a lobotomized girl in a slave pen welling up before I could shove them away. "Sometimes death is better than living a nightmare."

I could feel him wince even without seeing his face. "Cieran..."

I shook myself a bit. "Stay on mission, we can add this to our debate list for later. We get to the side entrance to the landing complex that this asshole is setting down in... how long?"

"Two hours from when we left the the hotel." Shyeel rattled off. "Which was twenty minutes ago. Based on what Voya pulled from the local network, we'll have an eight hour gap to work with. Assuming he goes with his usual routine anyway."

"We've got a plan if he doesn't."

The Asari gave me a look that I could read easily through her helmet. "I meant if he doesn't send his crew off."

My lips twisted. "We have a plan for that too."

"Not one that T'Ravt would like."

"I don't particularly like leaving those people in slavery either, but the four of us against a the crews of a dozen ships isn't something we can do." I exhaled. "We just snipe him out and then leave."

Voya let out a quiet, growling sound.

"No choice Voya." Another annoyed noise escaped her, but she didn't contradict me. "We'll just have to pray to Athame that he sticks with his routine. There, that alleyway."

After shooing off the Batarian prostitute who'd been lurking inside, the four of us silently filed down the refuse filled path. Well, as silently as four people in armor traipsing through garbage could really be. We made plenty of noise but avoided talking until we reached the sealed door on our left that lead into our target, Voya making quick work of the lock with her omni-tool before we quickly darted inside.

Inside proved to be the same, half-filled storage room that Voya and I had checked out the day before. A single, barely functioning light gave just enough illumination to see the empty crates and scattered boxes strewn about the place. It had probably been intended as a maintenance bay, or oversized janitor's closet, but had been neglected and ignored at some point during the spaceport's lifetime. Everything was covered in dust, and the internal doorway had opened to reveal an out-of-service sign stuck to its other side when we'd initially opened it. Which made it the best location we could hope for to lurk in while we waited for our window of opportunity.

"Welcome to our home for the next several hours." I murmured once the door had shut behind us, "Voya, check the interior door, make sure it's still locked and showing as broken on their side. Thul, keep this one locked as well, I'd rather not be surprised by a drifter trying to follow us in."

"So..." Shyeel drawled while the other two checked their respective doors, the Asari following me as I started checking over the small room to make sure that Voya and I's footprints were the only ones in the dust caked floor. "We're just going to sit in here for an hour and a half?"

"Sort of," I gestured at a grime covered terminal set into the far wall, "Voya gets to play with their network, as soon as she gets control of the security system we get to start with plan one."

"I thought we needed to wait until we knew if he was taking his crew or not."

I shrugged a little. "I don't think plan three would be complicated by this place being on fire, do you?"

She snorted. "And it leaves a known slavers den uselessly adrift for a few weeks while they repair their largest hanger complex?"

"That too. Come on, we can check the grenades while we wait."

"And we can talk." Thul spoke up as he shifted away from the doorway, his arms already pulling the heavy bag off of his back. "It will be good for both of you."

The Asari groaned while I merely sighed. "Thul, this isn't the best time to play therapist."

"Considering that you have proven extremely adept at avoiding me, it would seem to be the only time." He dipped his politely to the left as he sat on a upturned crate. "Of course, you are within your rights to order me not to speak, if you wish."

A muscle in my face twitched slightly. "Just... fucking say what you have to say."

"You don't have to be an ass about it Kean." Shyeel muttered as she took her own makeshift seat, accepting the first grenade from Thul's pouch. "Athame's ass, I've got even less use for his religion than you do but it's still good to talk about shit."

I evidently slipped into the posture for Batarian surprise unconsciously, because she snorted and shook her head. "What the fuck else was I supposed to do? You and Ayle won't let me use dust or damned near anything else, and this big idiot kept pestering me until I sat down with him."

One of my shoulders twitched as I took a grenade from Thul, "Honestly I thought you were just sleeping with Jacqueline and Marcus, or raiding their drug stash."

She made a disgusted face. "Tried it once, they're into pain and weird shit. I'd rather have a relaxing swim than that rough crap."

Somehow Jack's sexual preferences didn't surprise me. Turning the object in my hands over a few times, I checked it for damage before inspecting the make-shift timer that we'd attached to the detonator. "So instead you just talk with Thul."

"Better than talking with you or Voya, not that the pair of you socialize with anyone but each other."

"Which is partly what I wished to discuss." Thul set the grenade he was looking at aside, shifting his visor to make it clear that all four of his eyes were looking at me. "While I am not one to dismiss the bond that the pair of you share, the fact remains that you only ever seem to interact with each other."

"I talk with Ayle daily. Or I did."

"About unit business. When was the last time you simply had a drink with your fellow Reyja'krem, or enjoyed a card game with the others?"

Just after we'd formed the unit, mostly because there hadn't been anything else to do to keep my mind occupied. "We've been busy."

" _You_ have been busy." He corrected me, his low voice as gentle as he could make it. "And you have ensured that you remained so. I am not asking to be your mind healer, to hear all of the things you keep deeply repressed, and I sincerely apologize if I came across as intending to be. I simply wish to speak with you about common topics, to get to know my fellow Reyja'krem."

Exhaling, I carefully set the grenade I'd checked onto the floor, and reached a hand out for another. "You know what there is to know about me Thul, and I'm sure everyone else in the unit has the idea."

He seemed to chuckle. "I know the stories, just as Ayle does, and have shared them with Shyeel. But you misunderstand, I don't intend to question you about your past. I prefer to get to know someone by simply speaking with them."

"He does." Shyeel sighed. "It's fucking weird, he just starts prattling on about his Pillars and other random crap until you react. He never even mentioned dust to me."

"And I know better than to speak of Miss Rane'li." Something like pain stabbed through my heart at her name, making my fingers freeze mid-motion. "I was instead hoping to discuss the Pillar of Power and its tenets with you."

I needed a long moment to recover, but I managed a tight nod. "Fine. But don't ever say her name again."

There was a long pause. "Cieran-"

" _No,_ Thul."

Another moment of silence before he spoke again, his voice level as if I hadn't just snarled at him. "I was contemplating our plan and observing how closely it followed the wisdom of the warrior's pillar."

A slow breath hissed between my teeth as I tried to bury the pain that the name had brought back. "Does it? There's four of us, and a probable minimum forty of them. Even with our equipment ten to one odds aren't exactly good, I figured a force multiplier was in order."

The Asari let out a quiet snort. "Since when is the definition of force multiplier the same thing as sprinkling a building with Batarian napalm-grenades?"

"Since everyone is afraid of fire." My right shoulder twitched in a tiny shrug. "The real bitch is going to be isolating the hallways we need to get the slaves from their pens back to the hanger."

"Please." Voya called from her corner, proving that she'd been listening in. "Not even remotely difficult."

I waved a hand in pseudo-apology. "Sorry, the real bitch is going to be getting them to cooperate and move their asses."

Thul chuckled. "And this is what I meant by how closely your plan followed the Pillar's wisdom Cie. You aren't even slightly concerned about the pirates that outnumber us ten to one or worse, because they will be too busy panicking to concern themselves with us."

"They'll also be blind and deaf once Voya shuts down their external communications and jams their helmet signals." I reminded him, finishing with my current grenade and accepting another from Shyeel when she grabbed two more. "We kill the ones in our way, isolate the rest."

"Which leaves them ignorant of our numbers, our objective, and the sound of gunfire will panic them further." Setting aside the bomb he'd just checked, he spread his hands. "Certainly giving us the illusion of tremendous strength and power."

My mouth twitched a little bit as the locked box of memories labeled Rane'li was finally closed once more. "What's your point Thul? That I think like a Batarian?"

"Partly. If we had more time, perhaps more manpower, how would you adjust the plan?"

Shyeel snorted. "Probably more explosions."

"Probably." I agreed. "A few car-bombs going off near the entrance would have been nice, maybe snipers to take out Ghen and his people when they come rushing back. If we could have touched off a riot or two that would have been good to use for cover as well."

The Batarian processed that for a few moments. "That would have left many who are not involved dead or dying."

"If we were on Illium or another sort-of decent planet that might bother me, but the people here aren't exactly innocents. I'm not going to be broken up if a few dozen pirates and slavers end up meeting Athame and wondering how the fuck to explain themselves."

"There's an image." Shyeel chuckled. "But I'm with Kean here, not getting your point."

"Perhaps you simply cannot see it, or perhaps I was merely confirming something for myself." He gave us a polite little Asari shrug. "But I believe this was still an adequate first step, and it seems we have all of the grenades checked."

I glared at him through my helmet. "That was it? Two months of dancing around the topic and that's all you wanted to say? That I approach combat with an eye towards scaring the crap out of people?"

"Yes."

My fingers may or may not have twitched towards my gun. "Was he this annoying for you?"

"You have no fucking idea." The Asari groaned and shook her head. "I still don't understand half of the questions he asked me. I doubt even Athame does."

"Lovely." Shaking my head irritably, I stood up and cracked my knuckles together. "Voya, how are we looking?"

"Ugly with four eyes, ugly with a fringe, ugly with a decent mane, but at least you're all concealed inside of armor for once. Oh, you mean the security? Finished five minutes ago, I was letting you have your little emotional thing."

"I could shoot her for you." Shyeel offered when I face-palmed my helmet and counted to twenty in highborn Batarian. "Maybe in the foot? She doesn't need all of her toes does she?"

"Don't tempt me." I muttered before sighing. "Right, you good to take the bombs?"

She nodded, pulling her heavy sniper rifle off of her back and handing it to Thul. "If she can guide me past the patrols with a minimum of bitchiness, should be like swimming in a quiet pond."

This was honestly the part of the plan that I liked the least, but I didn't really see another option. Of the four of us Shyeel was the only one fast enough to get the grenades into position, and could always use her biotics to accelerate herself out of trouble. Thul or I being with would only slow her down and make it more likely that she got caught, and while Voya could probably keep up we needed her to keep managing the security systems. I was a decent hacker but nowhere near her level, if crap went wrong there was no guarantee that I could bob with the waves.

"First run will be the west wing, five locations." The Quarian's voice turned serious as Thul carefully helped the Asari attach the grenades to her belt. "It's the most patrolled section with the best hangers, Ghen's personal ship is likely to land there within an hour if the traffic control data is accurate. We're doing it first while you're fresh, and preferably before more of the Circle's guards show up."

"Got it. First course?"

"Right from this door, third right to a utility run. First location is inside of there, near a junction box that controls one of the hanger doors."

Shyeel nodded, rolling her shoulders, hips, and then her arms as she loosened herself up a bit. Thul stepped back while I escorted her to the door, waiting for Voya's nod before opening it. The rusted metal slid aside with a quiet grinding sound, but thankfully closed more quietly once she was gone.

After that... Thul settled himself onto another crate, content to murmur sayings from the Pillars while he checked over his guns, while I hovered around my companion, pacing as she guided the Asari through the complex.

"Pause and quiet, there's two guards wandering down the hall next to you. All right, move but stay silent, take the next left." A pause. "Yes, the one with the piping, follow that down twenty meters, there will be a hatchway back into the hall but don't open it. Plant a grenade on the main cables next to it." Another long pause. "The grenade will blow them all up, I don't care where you put it, just on them somewhere."

I snorted, continuing to move back and forth. There were a few tense moments. One of the grenades was supposed to go into an airduct that looked easily reachable on the blueprints that we had, but in reality... well, Shyeel wasn't exactly tall. She managed it but barely got around a corner before a bunch of locals hauling fueling equipment to a hanger moved down the hallway she'd just gotten out of.

Shyeel eventually returned, then departed with more grenades, repeating the process three more times before stumbling back in once all twenty-four bombs were in place.

"That was fun..." She groaned, yanking her helmet off and grabbing the flask of water I handed her. Some of it spilled over her branded face, but most she guzzled down. "Did I really have to fucking sprint the last section?"

"Yes, another slave team coming in to prep the facilities." Voya shrugged slightly, not glancing over. "Using your biotics would have let them hear you, and would have been just as tiring for you anyway."

The former drug addict scowled, the motion twisting the burned skin on her face. "Chi, we don't bring up Kean's girl, you don't fucking mention shit about my biotics. Got it?"

Voya turned, obviously ready to snap back, but kept her mouth shut when I spoke first. "Both of you, not now. Stay on fucking mission."

The woman and the Asari both grunted, the former turning back to her console while the latter guzzled more water.

Exhaling I turned and glared mildly at Thul despite the fact that he hadn't done anything. "You... not a word."

"I wasn't going to say anything." He returned placidly. "Though perhaps we should spend more time together as a unit in the future."

"I'll consider it." I let air hiss between my teeth in annoyance, "Voya, how long until Ghen's ships land?"

"His first vessels are already on approach, his flagship should be..." Her voice trailed in confusion. It probably showed just how much of a bad sign I viewed that tone of voice to be in that I already had my heavy pistol in my hands before she continued. "Someone is trying to hack the exterior door."

"Of course someone is." I growled, turning to stare at it. "They having any luck?"

"No, they've made two... three now, attempts but my sequences are keeping them out." Her voice shifted to alarm. "Barely, they're letting a dedicated VI link with the systems. I can't compete with that level of power."

I let out another Batarian hiss between my teeth. "Shyeel, cover her. Thul, we're on the door. And kill the light!"

We barely got into place, the light above snapping off to leave us in darkness, before our guests succeeded in getting through Voya's security. Light stabbed inwards from the now open doorway for a brief moment, and then people were moving in.

My first impression was...not an impressed one. The lead man, probably human, was in midnight black armor that looked expensive, and had splotches where markings had obviously been recently painted over. He also had an equally impressive looking assault rifle in his hands... but completely blew his entrance. Instead of checking his corners, he moved straight into the room as if there was no possible chance of enemy contact, not even noticing Thul and I lurking in the shadows.

"Dammit human!" A strangely familiar Turian voice growled before a massive figure in black and red started to move in, "You don't enter-"

His voice cut off when Thul and I both snapped our guns up and leveled them at his head from less an a foot away each. The idiot in front of him cursed, spun, then froze when Shyeel, her helmet back on, vaulted a cargo container and shoved her own pistol against his neck.

The Turian, at least, was smart. He kept his hideously massive rifle lowered, and made no sudden movements. Even with his... holy Athame that was some nice armor. I would kill people to make armor of that high of quality. But even as gorgeous as it was, at the point-blank range it wouldn't do anything to stop the massive rounds my Executioner shot out, never-mind Thul's rifle.

"Are you with Ghen?" Our guest kept his voice low and level, and didn't sound nearly as worried as most people would be given his position.

"Do we look like we are?" I growled back, sticking with Thessian after a quick decision.

"No." His head shook minutely. "You are actually wearing professional armor with rather noticeable markings, which likely makes you mercenaries."

Dammit, his voice was fucking familiar but I still couldn't place it. "Your point?"

"That mercenaries can be purchased. How many credits would be required to get you to leave here?"

"You don't have enough." It was my turn to shake my head minutely. "What you can do is back up, take the idiot with you, and watch as we shut the door in your face."

There was a long pause. "You'll be better off negotiating with us. I have two companions rigging explosives to the outer wall as we speak."

A muscle in my cheek twitched, and I had to fight the urge to step away from the wall. "And you're willing to die if we decide to just shoot you first?"

"If you were truly willing to kill us, you already would have." He pointed out reasonably. "Call it an educated gamble that you have no desire to alert Ghen's people by firing your weapons."

Athame's holy azure, where did I know this idiot from? Every word tugged at my head, demanding that I wake up and realize just who he was but it wouldn't fucking come to me. "And you're willing to alert him with explosions?"

"I would prefer not to, it would complicate our mission. But unfortunately the Corporal here forgot his basic training." The human seemed to shrink at the scathing tone. "Which leaves us at this impasse."

I exhaled, resiting the urge to snort at the deserved rebuke. "All right, so you don't want to leave this nice store room, we don't want to leave this nice store room, but standing with the door open is just going to draw attention. Your guns on the floor, his too. Companions come in, they can keep their guns but they stay pointed down."

He seemed to consider that. "And then what?"

"We discuss this civilly, without gunfire or explosions, boring as that might be." I flicked my gaze at Shyeel and her hostage, then back at my own, my throat drying a bit as I realized how close I was to having to execute this guy. "Time is a factor, so I'm going to have to ask you to decide quickly."

"Commander?" He turned his head slightly, enough to glance over his own shoulder. "This is your mission."

Whoever the Commander was didn't respond verbally, not that I could hear anyway, but thankfully they apparently made the decision I was hoping for. The Turian nodded, then carefully set his gun on the floor and pushed it away with an armored foot. Not that he was truly disarmed, it looked like he had at least five or six more guns strapped to his back, waist, and legs. The Corporal followed suit with his only weapon, both of them holding their hands far to their sides and letting Shyeel motion them into a corner.

"All right, get in here." I called out as quietly. "Guns down. Voya? Get the light back on please."

The single bulb flickered back to life, just as the clattering of armor reached my ears. Two more figures dutifully appeared, looking like another two humans, one male, one female. He had a pistol that he left secure on his belt, while she carried a rifle in her hands, along with a shotgun across her back. The pair glanced around after entering, but silently moved to join their companions as I slapped the door controls. He seemed.. rather too relaxed given the situation, which made me feel like he was the Commander. For her part, the woman looked tense and a bit twitchy, and nearly brought her rifle up on seeing Thul before controlling herself.

They joined their partners quickly enough, turning the situation from an awkward hostage thing to... an differently awkward hostage thing but with lesser odds of some random idiot noticing it was happening.

"All right." Leaving Shyeel and Thul to cover them with their guns, I let my own aim lower as I stared at the four of them. "You, Turian. Have we met before?"

The question seemed to amuse him. "I don't recall encountering a mercenary unit with your colors and logo, but I suppose it is possible."

Dammit, this was seriously fucking bothering me. "Who are you?"

"I'm afraid the Commander should handle negotiations from here, mercenary."

I twitched slightly, but turned to the other two, focusing on the man. "All right, and you are?"

Except he wasn't the one who spoke.. and my heart seized up when I heard her voice. "I would be the Commander."

My brain may have been attempting to drown itself, but thankfully something kept the autopilot going. "And your name is?"

"Shepard." Her tone was surprisingly annoyed... or maybe angry? Shit, I was too thrown off by meeting Commander Fucking Shepard to really process things appropriately. "And you're... is something wrong with you?"

Yes. I was standing in front of someone I'd convinced myself I would never meet.

Thankfully, Thul seemed to recognize the name as well, drawing attention to himself by speaking. "Shepard, as in the Alliance hero?"

"No," The Lionness of Elysium at least made an attempt to lie, her discomfort seemingly rising. Though whether it was because she was speaking with a Batarian, or because she didn't want to be recognized I honestly couldn't say. "It's a common human surname."

The Batarian chuckled, obviously not believing her. Wait, if she was Shepard, that made the corporal Jenkins, and the Turian was... shit. What the fuck was he doing with her already?

"And you are?" Shepard prompted, turning back to me.

I shook myself out of the dazed stupor I'd stumbled into, ruthlessly throttling the part of me that was trying to fanboy at standing in front of a living, breathing Commander Shepard. I could freak out later, right now we had a mission, and time wasn't standing still. "Kean."

"Kean." She repeated the single syllable slowly. "Didn't the Hegemony put out a bounty on a human named Kean? The only one of our species to gain a... Batarian title?"

And of course she was up to date on Batarian politics. Or more likely, up to date on people the Hegemony wanted dead, she was probably on the same list.

Though there was also the slight catch in her voice before she'd mention the species... possibly stopping herself from saying a slur. Then again, she'd probably spent most of her military career fighting either Hegemony sponsored pirates or Hegemony forces disguised as pirates so that wouldn't exactly be out of place. "They might have, there's a lot of humans named Kean. It's a fairly common surname, after all."

There was a smothered chuckle from the otherwise silent human who'd entered with her, maybe Kaiden? Until he actually spoke I had no idea.

Shepard seemed to be amused by me throwing her own words back at her., enough that the annoyance seemed to fade into something more neutral. "Am I wrong in assuming that you're here for a mission as well?"

The wave hit the beach. "No, you aren't. You're here for the human hostages, aren't you?"

"Yes." She nodded slowly. "Several of them are members of Horizon's governing body. We're here to get them and everyone else he took out."

Lovely. "Then it seems like our missions align. We're here to release members of Lady T'Ravt's militia, and preferably to kill Ghen for having the temerity to raid her in the first place."

"T'Ravt." What little amusement Shep had managed to build up seemed to vanish at the Warlord's name. "Not the name I was hoping to hear you use."

I twitched a shoulder. "One, she's paying me. Two, I'm not a fan of slavers."

"She is a slaver."

I gave a more obvious Asari style shrug, the motion or my words visibly throwing her off for a moment. "All of the Warlords are, but that's not a river whose course I can change. But these people I can do something for, give them a chance. Also, we get paid for it, so it's a win-win situation as far as I'm concerned."

"That's... surprising to hear from a mercenary." The other man proved indeed to be Kaiden Alenko, his body shifting as he spoke. "In a good way, I mean. Right Commander?"

"It's... certainly surprising." Shepard allowed, seeming to shake herself. "T'Ravt is letting you let the colonists go?"

"Our orders are to give them their own ship and get them out of here." Thul rumbled with a heavy shrug of his own. "A peace offering, in a way."

"A peace offering. From Warlord T'Ravt." She sounded like she expected the galaxy to be ending, or for someone to tell her she was dreaming. Not that I could really blame her, T'Ravt had been the third largest supporter of pirate raids into the Traverse and Verge over the last few decades... and her groups tended to have a lot more success than the Hegemony's or die Waffe's.

The Hegemony might have been the Alliance's obvious rival, but T'Ravt was very high up on their shit list.

"We can discuss politics later." I turned slightly when Voya interrupted us from her console, her voice heavily annoyed. "Ghen's ship just landed, cameras show his crew departing. Cie, either get them to work with us or shoot them, we're out of fucking time."

Dammit. I trusted Shepard... I probably shouldn't have, I didn't really _know_ Shepard, but... fuck. Even if I was pretty sure the games were just implanted memories, it was still Commander Fucking Shepard. Nihlus, on the other hand... Him I did _not_ trust. The guy had been Saren's apprentice for one, and meeting Tela Vasir had been another red flag when it came to interacting with Spectres.

"It's your call Shepard." Said Turian rumbled, doing a much better job of keeping his own role concealed. "We follow your orders."

She nodded slightly, her visor never leaving mine. "I don't like the idea of releasing a Warlord's soldiers, or working with someone on T'Ravt's payroll... but you have to have done something right in your life if the Hegemony wants you dead. And don't think I could stand leaving anyone in slavery regardless."

"Then we have something in common." I slowly let my pistol collapse, returning it to my belt in a show of trust. "Like I said, our plan was to get the colonists to a ship and let them get themselves out, but they'll have an easier time of it with your help."

"We had a plan of our own." Shepard pointed out reasonably, seeming to hesitate for a moment before she let her rifle collapse on itself as well. "You don't want to hear it?"

Shyeel chuckled. "Did your plan involve incendiary explosives detonating throughout the place? Kean wasn't lying when he said you've got stuff in common human, we weren't planning on leaving the Circle a complex to use."

"That's..." The Commander seemed momentarily at a loss for words. "You already have them in place?"

"Along with the routes to get the slaves back to their ships." Voya called over again, "Now could we hurry the fuck up? I have cameras on Ghen, most of his crew are gone, he's overseeing getting the remaining guards around the slave pens."

"Did he keep the groups separate?" Shepard spoke before I could. "Or did he intermix them?"

"Separated by sex and species." The Quarian's voice was annoyed. "Going to be just lovely getting our targets and yours to the right ships. Which I already have picked by the way."

I snorted. "Stop boasting and get ready to bring their comms down, Thul, how long on the grenades?"

"Thirty minutes by the timers, we can remote at anytime." The Batarian rumbled.

"Then we have time." We both turned back to Shepard as she motioned for her people to holster their weapons, Nihlus and Jenkins carefully picking theirs up while Shyeel covered them both, not relaxing until they'd collapsed them. "Let's see your hacker, and pick out the best routes for both of our teams."

* * *

**Secure Message, Eclipse Private Servers**

_Washana,_

_Seriously, stop calling me sir. If Trena is paying you I will double it. On a more serious note, glad to hear that you didn't have any problems getting rid of the Pack once we left Denara. Is Sederis keeping your unit there or are you rotating back to Illium? If the latter, do me a favor and tell Trena and Ghai that I'll be there after our next mission, they haven't responded to the messages I sent them._

_Also, for next time, I don't need the gory details about how you patched some guy's intestines. I get that you're a medic, but I don't need to read that while I'm trying to eat breakfast._

_~ Cieran_

* * *

**Next up is Uninvited Guests III**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... people have asked about Shepard since Arrival began, and here she finally is. Sort of, just a bit of a glimpse before the next chapter. It's going to be odd writing her, but will do my best. Also team 2 being pretty much themselves.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	9. Operation: Uninvited Guests III

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

**Operation: Uninvited Guests III**

_Date: 08-05-2182_

_Location: Carastes, Attican Traverse_

* * *

"All right." Leaning over Voya's shoulder, I reached out a hand and traced our route with a finger. "This is our path, the explosives are set to seal the major hallways on our flanks as well as shutting down the spaceport's network after we seal the appropriate doors either open or closed."

Standing next to the Quarian's other side, Shepard grunted, her arms crossing her chest as she observed the map. "Where are the prisoners?"

"Here and here. We hit pod one first, it's nearest to the main entrance so we need to get them cleared first. From there we go east to three, thankfully pod two isn't in use right now. Apparently they had to cut their raid short." Shifting my fingers, I tapped another location. "This is a small armory for the guards, records show just riot suppression gear but if we can arm T'Ravt's people they can help get your civilians into the ships."

"Which are these." Voya spoke, shifting the screen from a map to security camera footage of two heavily modified freighters. "Both are raiding ships so they have the capacity to fit everyone, even if they won't be happy about the accommodations."

"We'll just have to transfer them off as quickly as possible." Shepard finally uncrossed her arms, placing a hand on the back of my companion's chair as she leaned in. "Where did you place the bombs?"

Voya brought the map back up, small orange dots flicking into place to show where Shyeel had planted the explosives.

"There isn't a way to deactivate them." The Terminus Quarian shook her head slightly, responding to the obvious question before it could be asked. "And we intended to block off all but our main route with fire or sealed doorways."

The Commander nodded minutely. "So both of our teams are trapped going in the same direction."

I shrugged slightly. "We weren't exactly expecting company, our main concern was keeping the chaos at a maximum and our flanks covered."

"All right. Is Ghen still here?"

"No." Voya shook her head, "He just departed. We were going to use the ship's guns to kill him on our way out, and preferably make even more of a mess of this place."

"Not going to argue with that." Shepard leaned back before turning back to face me. "Time to detonation?"

Twisting my torso, I glanced back at where Thul was leaning against a wall, his helmet fixed on where Shepard's team was going over their weaponry. "Twenty one minutes."

My lips thinned. While it sounded like plenty of time, there was still a lot of crap that we needed to get done before the explosives went off. "Voya, how long to finish getting everything done here?"

"Five minutes." She was already cutting out the visual data, her fingers flicking across the glowing keyboard as she began preparing everything we needed completed.

Leaving her to that, Shepard and I backed away. I started to turn to Shyeel and Thul to make sure that they were ready, even though I knew full well that both of them were, but the Spectre candidate interrupted me before I could. "What kind of opposition can we expect?"

I blinked, then shifted my chest around so that I could regard her squarely. "Usual pirate quality, so a few people to worry about, plenty that are only dangerous in large numbers. Nothing I'd imagine you're unused to."

She seemed to shrug. "No, but you're more familiar with the local conditions than I am."

"Not really. We've been on planet for two days, and if I have the choice we're never coming back." I shook my head slightly. "This place makes most of Omega look civilized. Honestly I'm surprised your nation hasn't obliterated it like its predecessors."

"We're too far into the Traverse for an easy strike, not without inviting T'Ravt or the Hegemony taking advantage." Shepard paused for a moment, "Though you make it seem like the former won't be bothering with us for a while."

"Probably not." But we didn't really have time to banter, even if part of me could have just sat down listen to her speak for hours. "If you'll excuse me, I should make sure my people are ready."

"They look prepared to me, and professional as well." I grimaced as she made it clear that this conversation wasn't quite over yet. "Or did you have specific orders to give them?"

For the most part she kept the suspicion out of her voice, but couldn't quite manage the same with her wary posture. I blinked slightly as I processed that, "What are you insinuating Commander?"

"That I only have your word that you're Kean. You're speaking in Asari, but your body language screams Batarian."

I pressed my lips together. It was entirely reasonable for her to be suspicious, now that I took a moment to think about it. But then again, one of her people was fucking Nihlus Kryik, and my natural paranoia was rising even as the fanboy in my head found himself being throttled.

"I only have your word that your Commander Shepard, Lionness of Elysium as well." My head twitched minutely. "You could just as easily be a tall Asari under that armor."

Apparently that wasn't what I was supposed to say, or do, because what little bit of relaxation that had entered her posture promptly tightened back up. "You aren't making it easy to work with you."

No, I wasn't. I exhaled tightly after resisting the urge to let air whistle between my teeth, "Look, we're both here to kill pirates and free slaves, but if we'd run into each other anywhere else you and that Turian would probably have tried to kill us, so forgive me for being edgy."

"I suppose I can't argue with that." It was her turn to let out a slow breath. "I should go. My people need to know the plan before we move out."

I nodded, taking a slow step back as she brushed past me, herding her people into the corner farther from Voya before the four of them put their heads together. While they conversed, Thul and Shyeel pushed off from where they'd been watching the others, quickly approaching me. There was a quiet click in my helmet as they activated our private helmet-to-helmet lines, though Shyeel kept her voice quiet so as not to carry beyond her helmet.

"I don't like this Kean." The Asari was visibly figity, a hand resting rather near her pistol. "Alliance types aren't known for honoring deals with our kind."

"It's not the Alliance ones that I'm worried about." I murmured back, turning and walking towards Voya to maximize the distance between our groups. "Not entirely anyway, they have their mission and it works with ours. The Turian though... keep an eye on him."

Thul made a show of checking his rifle as he he spoke. "You know him?"

"I know _of_ him. I think." I hedged quietly. "If I'm right, we can't trust him. Shyeel, use your biotics as little as possible. If he looks like he's going to betray us slap him into a wall and shove your gun into his throat. Until then, they give us a better chance of getting this shit done with."

Shyeel didn't seem thrilled, but she nodded all the same.

"Done." Voya reported before we could continue our conversation. "I've got all the doors we need on remote, and algorithms waiting for my command to shut down the external lines."

"Good. Shepard, we're moving out in just a moment."

"We're ready." The Commander pulled her rifle off of her back, most of us quickly drawing our own weapons shortly thereafter. After a moment's debate, I went with my Watcher rather than the hand-cannon. Rate of fire was likely to be more important than stopping power, and I could always use my tech mines if the latter was required. "We moving?"

"Not just yet." I rolled my shoulders to loosen them. "Thul?"

The massive Batarian had been the only one to leave his guns holstered, which left both of his hands free to fold together before his chest. "Pillar of Power, grant us the strength to overcome our enemy's numbers this day. Pillar of Heart, let us leave no one behind to suffer unjust punishment."

"The abridged version today?" Voya teased when he let his hands fall, while I found myself amused at the awkward shuffling from the Alliance team. Shepard and Jenkins were both staring at Thul like he was a new kind of life form. "What about the other Pillars."

"I find it more polite to ask for only what help I believe we may need." Thul rumbled as he drew his weapon. "No words for your ancestors?"

"Those are for me alone. Now are we going to go kill slavers or what?"

Snorting, I nodded and waved towards the door. "Let's go."

We did so with a minimal amount of hesitation about who would be in front, and thus vulnerable, largely because Thul simply shouldered his way past Jenkins to ensure that he was the first out of the doorway. Shepard and the Corporal quickly followed him, with me right behind them as everyone else moved to keep up.

While everyone else focused on following Voya's muttered directions through the dark hallways, she and I had a silent conversation in signed Khellish, our fingers flicking as we surreptitiously gestured to one another.

_Who Turian? From false memory?_

_Yes. Spectre._

She stuttered stepped before lengthening her strides to keep up. _Keelah. Watch him?_

 _Obviously._ I bit my lip for a moment. _Get them ship first._

The Quarian nodded slightly, returning her free hand to her weapon. It wasn't the best plan, but I thought it was better than trying to get onto a vessel before them. Somehow I didn't think that Nihlus, much less Shep, would be thrilled if we tried to shoulder our way off world before they got everyone ready. But if we let them load up their people first, they'd be free to leave us behind and get out of here.

Which would leave us alone to try and escape, but since that had largely been the plan to begin with I wasn't terribly worried.

We made it down the initial hallway without issues, not that that said all that much. None of the lights were even on, leaving us with just the emergency strips in the floor to let us see much of anything without having to turn our own lights on. It wasn't so unused that there was dust on the floor, but it was obviously well on it's way to simply being abandoned.

After maybe four minutes of movement, we reached a more trafficked area, Shepard holding up a fist as she and Thul slowed. The rest of us decelerated, leaving the pair of them to approach the corner. They did a quick check in both directions, then waved us on as they turned left.

"Where is everyone?" Alenko murmured another sixty seconds or so later, the eight of us pounding along an illuminated hall.

"Hangers." I grunted. "Servicing the ships, guards should be concentrated around the slave pods and the exits."

"Shouldn't there be a staff though? A complex this size would have dozens of workers in the Alliance."

"We aren't in the Alliance." Voya shook her head, her voice a bit breathy as we ran. "They probably just have enough people to manage the incoming and basic maintenance. Keeps the costs down. Also, picked a low-traffic route."

That hallway flew past without any issues, as did the next. We finally slid to a stop at T-intersection, the turn ahead leading to the main hall. Careful to stay back enough that no one in there could glance down and see us, I sent Shyeel to join Jenkins on point while Shepard and Thul came back to huddle up with the rest of us.

"Five minutes to detonation." The former priest checked his omni-tool, "Just in time."

"Agreed." Shepard shifted her helmet towards the Quarian on my left. "Update on their guards?"

My companion nodded, dropping down to a knee as she brought her omni-tool up. A few flicks of her long fingers later saw small panels snap to life as she checked through the various security cameras. "Eight in the main hall, with four more just outside. Small groups in each pod... a few per hanger watching the slaves working on their ships."

"Should be simple with all eight of us then..." My voice trailed. "Wait, what's that room?"

She'd stopped on a single frame, showing at least a dozen pirates seated in what looked like a mess hall of some kind. They seemed entirely involved in eating and drinking, most didn't even look armed. "The cafeteria... it's on the other side of this wall, two entrances from the main hall."

"Looks like the Pillars answered Thul." I murmured. If we took them out we'd remove nearly all of the place's defenders in one sudden strike, and the rest would be confused and lost when the fires started.

"They did." Shepard allowed slowly. "Can you seal them into that room?"

Blinking, I glanced up at her. "Why bother? We can take them out quickly."

"They aren't armed Kean."

"Yes, that makes the danger to us minimal and thus ideal. Wait, is this a moral thing?" I shook my head slightly in confusion. "They're pirates and slavers, if they live they're just going to-"

"I"m aware!" The Commander snapped at me, her helmet shifting to let make it quite clear that she was glaring through the visor. "They are not armed. Seal them in."

Grinding my teeth, I nodded tightly. "All right. Voya, execute your run-times. Thul, detonate on her order."

Glowing panels flickered and flashed as she did so, Thul standing close while I joined Shepard in heading closer to the corner. Nihlus and Alenko joined us a few moments later the Turian glancing my way when he did so. It took me a moment to realize that I was allowing my irritation to openly show, air whistling between my teeth as I forced my neck to straighten.

There was a few tense moments of silence, and then shit got loud.

A series of deep _crack-whump_ s echoed in sequence as our bombs detonated, the fire alarms blaring to life as fires began throughout the building. Thankfully the suppression systems stayed firmly off, so Voya had manged to do that much appropriately at least. The place was too big for me to really feel the detonations, but my imagination provided the feeling of the building shuddering while the guards not more than a dozen meters away began shouting in confusion.

And then we were moving, and I got to see Commander Shepard in action.

Orange omni-plating snapped to life across her body, the hard light gleaming as she broke into a full sprint, even lengthening my strides as best I could saw her easily pulling away. Fuck, Nihlus was the only one even close to keeping up as they burst into the hall. Rifles roared as pirates screamed, the Spectre and his trainee disdaining cover in favor of blitzing straight across the hall, both of them blazing at full auto to their left. They reached the other side just as our opponents seemed to recover, belatedly hurling bursts of fire after them.

Which meant they were all looking the wrong way when the rest of us showed up. Alenko and I were taller than Shyeel and Jenkins, and had gotten out ahead of them. The pair of us skidded to halts just inside the main hallway, my gun snapping up into a proper two-handed grip as the adrenaline rush fully hit my system.

Four of the guards were already dead or too wounded to do more than lay on the ground, but that still left half of them upright. They weren't entirely stupid, they were abandoning their security guard chairs and posts to try and get behind more solid cover. One was screaming for the men outside to get their asses in to help, another cutting him off as the Batarian saw the two of us arrive.

It was the last words he would say in his life, my Watcher unloading a long burst into his chest to batter through his weak shielding. Kaiden quickly joined me, a single shot helping the barriers collapsed, while his second burst through the man's weak armor.

Pushing off, I started to resume advancing as I swiveled my gun to the next target, a Turian without a helmet, when Voya shouted from behind us. "Cieran! Right! Right!"

Snapping myself around, I found my back slamming into Kaiden when he didn't react nearly as quickly to the shout. I would have been far more amused to hear him swearing if it wasn't for the fact that a human woman had just stumbled out of an open doorway not more than a meter away, a knife held in her hands. Reflexively snapping my gun up, I put a single burst into her upper chest, red blood misting into the air as she shrieked and collapsed.

She'd barely hit the floor before two more members of our species emerged from the same doorway, meeting the same fate as I efficiently executed them, my brain only slowly realizing where in the deeps they'd come from.

Shit. I hadn't _specifically_ told Voya to obey Shep, so naturally she'd ignored the Commander entirely and left the mess hall doors wide open. Or more likely, she'd left _this_ door open and sealed the rest.

Behind me, the gunfire rose, but I was more preoccupied with the shit in front of me. Releasing my gun with my left hand, I snapped my omni-tool to life and quickly flicked my fingers in a gesture I'd memorized by wrote a long time ago. The tech launcher on my left hip promptly spat out an orange dart, the incinerate whipping in a tight arc to curl through the doorway. The muted flash was followed by more screaming, which cut off when I took a quick step forwards and slapped the door controls.

Which... did a whole lot of nothing, because Voya had disabled all of those controls.

"Athame's motherfucking azure..." Grinding my teeth, and trusting my companion's plus Shepard's team to finish off the guards, I carefully approached the doorway, returning my left hand to my weapon.

Stepping over the three bodies still leaking red blood onto the floor, I risked a quick glance inside. My incinerate had dropped a pair of Turians, along with a Salarian, the latter still alive but whimpering in a high-pitched voice as he stared at arms that were little more than raw flesh. One round put him out of his misery before he was cognizant of my approach, but his death succeeded in distracting me long enough for one of the still surviving pirates inside to pop up from behind a serving counter and open fire with a pistol.

Flinching as the weak weapon sent two rounds screeching off of my barriers, I retaliated with a five round burst that sent a Batarian ducking back into cover, buying me the time to backpedal out of the room.

Growling in irritation, I was about to prep my omni-tool for more incinerates when a gleaming form stormed up to me. Shepard didn't say anything, simply planting herself in the doorway and loosing a single round as soon as she had a target. When no one else poked their heads out, she pulled a single grenade from her belt and whipped the disc towards the back.

I didn't bother watching the explosion, pushing off from the wall and glancing around the hallway. Unsurprisingly the rest of the guards were dead, including four in full armor who looked like they'd been caught in a wicked crossfire when they'd tried to come inside. Nihlus and Thul were covering the front, while everyone else as making sure that none of the pirates were getting up again.

"Kean." My back tightened at the pure fury in Shepard's voice. Whatever iota of trust we'd managed to accumulate, Voya had just thrown away in her determination to see as many slavers dead as possible. "You agreed."

"I did." I exhaled slowly. If I told her it was Voya's fault, it was entirely possible that she would try to kill or arrest her before this thing was done with. Shit. "We need to get to pod one, we're on a time limit."

"Fine." The word was more of a snarl than an actual syllable. "Move out."

The group that did so was considerable tenser than the one who hadn't been in a fire fight together. Rather than move as a mixed unit as we had before, we split by teams and moved down either side of the hallway, keeping as much distance as we practically could. I was annoyed enough that I shoved my way past Thul, taking point across from Shepard who was studiously refusing to look in our direction.

Voya's voice crackled across our private line a few moments down the next hall, the sealed doorways on either side letting us know we were going the right way. "Did you get all-"

"Yes." I snapped. "And we're having words later."

"What did-"

"Not. Now."

She let out an annoyed, growling sound, but subsided. There wasn't any further conversation between anyone until we reached the massive archway leading into the temporary prison, the thick doors firmly locked open while shouting echoed down the halls. The only thing we could see inside as a pale wall, apparently there was a sharp turn right when you entered. It was probably so that guards on this side could easily murder slaves trying to escape at a tight choke-point, but it also meant that we were able to get really fucking close before anyone knew we were even coming.

"There's a fire in hall five!" A panicked voice was screaming, "I can't get to the doorway!"

"Then go to the main fucking hall and use the front door!" A woman shouted back. "You! Get to the command post and find out where the fuck Vie went!"

The person who was supposed to find Vie, whoever that was, appeared around the corner when we weren't more than a meter or two away.

Shepard didn't bother with her gun, punching a fist forwards with a furious shout as her body glowed with biotics. Either she was naturally strong or her rage was helping things, because the throw slammed the Batarian backwards into the wall with enough force that I heard his bones shattering even through his armor.

He let out a yowling scream of pain that cut off when I put a round into his exposed head, his broken body not even hitting the ground before we were past him and around the corner.

"What in Athame's-" The Asari manning the main security post already had a shotgun up, her eyes wide as the pair of us vaulted her still twitching subordinate. She reflexively fired off a round, but hadn't taken the appropriate amount of time to aim. Most of the scattershot went harmlessly between Shepard and I, only a few flicks harrying my barriers and her tech armor.

And then the guard was tumbling backwards as we blasted her from point-blank range, her biotic defenses entirely insufficient to the barrage that tore her chest into bloody shreds.

"Quarian, take her post and open the cells." The Commander growled, "Kean, the sooner we get this done the better. I want a half team to get to the next pod and get everyone free while we cover this group."

Stepping out of Voya's way, and not missing the glare she threw at Shep, I grunted in acknowledgment. "Divide by squads?"

"You think I'm letting any of you run off alone?" Her helmet shook. "Nihlus, take Alenko and get to pod three. He can get through the security and get the doors open."

"Thul, Shyeel." Flicking through my memory, I brought up the map and tried to remember the appropriate paths that we'd been planning to take. "Don't bother getting them to the armory, we'll have it cleared out by then. Head straight for the target hangers."

They both nodded, Thul dipping his head a bit to the right politely. And then the four of them were gone, heading back out and towards their target. Leaving me and Voya with Shepard and Jenkins, neither one of whom I really wanted to speak with at the moment.

Moving back and forth, I grabbed the dead Batarian's pistol, following it with the Asari's shotgun. Tucking them both under one arm, I moved past where the Alliance soldier's were watching Voya intently, and from the way Jenkin's was letting his head bob around they were muttering to one another on a private line of their own.

The pod itself resembled a prison I supposed. Basically a circle with just the guard post we were next to as the only way in or out, with alternating stairwells to get to the upper levels. It was strangely silent until I realized that every cell was occupied by Turians... who were all already standing and waiting impatiently next to the doorways.

"All right." I rose my voice to make sure it carried. "Since you're all already upright, I'm skipping the usual platitudes and assuming you've guessed what's happening. Who's the ranking officer?"

"Me." A female announced herself, clawed hands rapping irritably on the door to her cell. Like the others she'd been stripped down to her under-armor clothing, which made them look a lot slimmer in the torso. Her facial markings were bright blue in color, contrasting heavily with her midnight black skin, and were oddly curvy in comparison to the usual harsh lines. "Commander Allia Magnus, Fifty-Fourth Xenthan. We were on garrison duty on Nevos, they paid off civilians to sabotage the warning network."

"Cieran Kean, XO Silver Blades mercenary unit, here to get you out and kill Ghen." I'd barely finished the sentence when Voya apparently found the appropriate controls, an annoying claxon blaring as every cell opened. "I've got two guns here, armory is down down the hall, straight left. It's the only door open, can't miss it.."

Magnus stretched out her odd legs as she moved forwards, taking the guns when I offered them to her. "Extraction?"

"Stealing two of the raiders docked here. Hanger thirty-four for us, thirty-five for the human colonists."

Her mandibles split wide, twitching slightly as she glanced over my shoulder. "Who are they?"

I glanced back, "Quarian is with me. Humans are Alliance, temporary cooperation to get this done since neither of our teams is exactly large. You have more people?"

"Yes." The Commander's eyes flicked between us before she nodded. "Three Terminus Quarians and four Humans."

Who obviously weren't here, which meant they'd be in pod three. Hopefully anyway. I'd assume that Voya would have let us know if she'd seen anyone being taken out with Ghen when he departed, but I'd also normally assume that she'd understand my intentions and actually follow my unspoken orders.

"There's a secondary team already en route to the other cells." Shepard announced herself brusquely, moving close enough to politely speak with us without actually getting that close. "We need to get to the hangers to secure them before the civilians arrive."

The Turian woman twitched her mandibles slightly, and seemed to ignore the Human commander entirely."Kean?"

I exhaled tightly but nodded. "Orders from the Lady Warlord were to get the Alliance civilians out as a peace offering. It'll take time to get the ships prepared to launch regardless."

"Understood. I'll accompany you as the vanguard, if that is acceptable." When I nodded, she turned to a nearby male with identical face-point, though he had a distinctively broken fringe. "Lieutenant, take this pistol and get our people to the armory. Remind them that no wounded are to be left behind to be enslaved and tortured."

"Sir." He took the weapon before turning to bark at everyone else, the former prisoners quickly lining up into military rows as they filed out of their cells and down stairs.

Shepard didn't look thrilled about the idea of forty plus Turians picking up guns, but seemed to force herself to nod stiffly when I turned back to her. "Let's move."

* * *

**Operation: Uninvited Guests IV**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah... this was supposed to be a three chapter operation, but it would result in this chapter being the length of two chapters as I currently have it going. So one more section before the next interlude. Here, we've got Shepard and Cieran not quite getting along, very much not helped by Voya. Fighting is rather one sided for now, but that will be changing in the next chapter as the pirates start to get their shit together.
> 
> Updates are slowing a little but should never drop below one a week, work was a bit stressful lately. I was almost transferred long-term to another state, and the chaos of trying to prep for that occupied a lot of time that ended up being wasted when I didn't get the position. Things should pick back up to my usual 2-3 chapters per week in the near future.
> 
> Also, just wanted to say that writing Shepard is surprisingly difficult.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	10. Operation IV: Uninvited Guests IV

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

**Operation: Uninvited Guests IV**

_Date: 08-05-2182_

_Location: Carastes, Attican Traverse_

* * *

Shepard remained on the warpath as we headed to the hanger, the rest of us struggling to keep up with the apparently still livid sentinel. Then again, this could just be how she fought normally, which was a mildly terrifying thought.

We'd run into a trio of pirates desperately trying to put out an electrical fire, probably caused by one of our bombs. They'd gone for their guns as soon as we'd come around the corner, but the Lionness of Elysium hadn't even let them get them out. The Turian had died first, taking a triple shot to his bared face that sent his body collapsing into the small fire. She'd followed that up by using her biotics to slam the two Batarians into one another, both of them swearing as they tried to free themselves. Shepard barely even slowed, shoving her Avenger against one of their faceplate's, executing him, and then glowing again with biotics before slamming a stream of warpfire across the other's throat.

That ten seconds or so of conflict resolved, she pushed off to accelerate back to full speed, easily staying far ahead of the rest of us.

"She's impressive." Magnus admitted as she vaulted the bodies, "Perhaps I should have been less rude."

"I don't think it would have helped." I grunted, more concerned with the amount of smoke slowly building up near the ceiling. The ventilation system must have been built as cheaply as everything else, I'd been hoping that it would at least do it's job of keeping most of that crap under control. It wouldn't bother us in our sealed armor, but the people we were rescuing didn't have their own supplies of oxygen. It wasn't dangerous yet, but it could easily get there if we didn't get them into the hanger soon.

"Probably not." The Turian was easily matching my pace, unlike Voya who was starting to lag slightly behind. Jenkins had at least enough tactical awareness to not want to leave anyone behind, and had slowed to cover her, which I was thankful for.

The Commander did finally slow down when we reached the end of the hall we were traversing, her helmet on a swivel as she checked the doorway labels, focusing on a wide double-door that was very much sealed. "Hanger Thirty Four. This door supposed to be shut?"

"Yes." Voya gasped out as she caught up, all of us slowing to a stop. "Didn't... want to alert them."

There was a quiet noise, like Shepard recognized the good idea but didn't want to admit it. Instead she simply waved towards the control panel before stepping back to the other side and flattening herself against the wall. "Jenkins, over here, cover my three. Kean, take the left after we enter."

Nodding, I shifted to stand behind Voya while she shuffled over to the controls and started working on them. "Magnus, probably best if you stay back here and cover us at range."

"Agreed." She hefted her liberated shotgun up, inspecting the battered weapon before nodding. "I'll watch your left."

And hopefully not shoot any of us in the back. I shook my head irritably at the drifting thought. Athame's ass it had been a while since I'd fretted over allies so much, even if some of it was deserved.

"Shepard," Pushing the paranoia aside, I tried to focus on the here and now rather than shit I couldn't control. "Mind _not_ leaving us all behind this time? Fuck, not even your Corporal could keep up."

She seemed to grunt, and maybe jerked her chin in a slight nod. Or she was just settling into a push-off stance, ready to bolt into the room the second the door was opened. Grimacing, I could only shake my head and make sure my SMG was firmly grasped in both hands as I settled myself in preparation.

I'd barely done so when the door groaned, separating in the middle as its two halves retracted sideways into the walls. Thankfully, Shep _did_ slow down a bit this time, enough that I could keep pace once the pair of us had shouldered our way through the still opening doors.

I didn't have time to really take in the hanger proper, mostly because of the people running around and screaming their heads off about the fires that were still spreading through the complex. Some, most actually, had the look of slaves, wearing little more than tattered cloth with metallic collars around their necks. The more dangerous ones were the guards and crew members trying to maintain order, but picking them out of the milling groups was a pain in the ass.

At least, it was for the first few seconds. Then the Athame cursed idiots noticed our little group exiting the previously sealed doorways.

"Intruders! Get the property-" Shepard cut off the Batarian who'd so thoughtfully identified himself with the appropriate volume of gunfire, her heavy rounds smashing through a tiny circle in his chest plating.

While she took out one idiot who hadn't even had his barriers online, I was snapping my gun up and to the left, triggering a quick burst at another four eyed alien who'd been supervising from a raised platform. More luck than skill saw the trailing three rounds smack into his throat, the embers of the incendiary ammo glowing brightly as he flailed and collapsed.

From there, things got _really_ fucking loud.

The smart slaves threw themselves onto the ground, covering their heads and trying to make themselves small targets. Unfortunately that was a small minority, most of them panicked and began running in every fucking direction imaginable, drawing curses from both me and Shepard as they throughoughly obscured the remaining guards.

"Get down! Dammit, on the ground!"

When none of them did so, I snapped my left hand out, fingers curling in a quick gesture. "You're own fault."

A blue disc spat out from my hip, the overload whinging upwards before exploding in bright arcs that caressed the people beneath. A good dozen slaves screeched and collapsed, their bodies shaking from the short-term electrocution, while a pair of women in armor both swore violently as they staggered, their shields drained.

Voya and Jenkins joined the fighting around then, the former neatly putting a round from her Viper through the Batarian woman's visor, while the Corporal joined his Commander in hosing down the human woman before she could get her own rifle in position to retaliate.

Flicking my gaze left, and seeing only service equipment whose purpose I could only guess at, I swiveled back to my right. "Nothing left."

"Right is clear." Shepard echoed a moment later. "We need to check the ship."

"I'm on it." Voya volunteered before I could open my mouth.

Swallowing my initial reply, I nodded and turned all the way to wave towards the door we'd just entered through. "Commander Magnus, mind backing her up?"

"So long as you don't mind me killing anyone we find aboard." The Turian woman emerged into the open, her weapon easily held at the ready.

"Go for it. Voya, see what you can do about getting the pre-flight started once it's clear." She nodded, exchanging her sniper rifle for her pistol as she moved past, Magnus right behind her as they headed towards the dropped ramp.

That out of the way, I turned and got a better look at the area we were in, only half-watching as Jenkins tried to calm the slaves down and get them out of the way. There wasn't much to see, the hanger itself was little more than a massive square with an open sky above. Apart from a few pieces of equipment that had probably been in the process of being moved when our bombs had detonated, everything was neatly stored off to the sides which left us with next to no cover beyond the ship itself.

Not that the ship looked like much. It had the flying-brick look of a Batarian freighter, and either it had once been painted red or the hull was actually rusting somehow. Still, it had gotten its crew here, so hopefully it would suffice to get us back to Omega.

"Shit." I muttered as Shepard moved over to join me, "I was hoping this place would be more defensible."

"Like you _hoped_ that those people would survive an overload mine?"

"I dialed the power back." From her still annoyed stance she didn't believe me, which made me groan in irritation. "My orders are to get them out alive Shepard, not kill them. If I'd wanted them dead I would have just used an incinerate."

She might have grunted, turning to flick her own visor around, the omni-plating from her tech armor making it almost painful to look at her from the short distance. "We need Hanger Thirty-Five open and secured."

"Agreed." Shifting a hand, I pointed at the far wall. "Blueprints say that wall is a retractable bulkhead that can lower into the ground, they can fit larger ships here then. Controls should be over there somewhere."

"Corporal! Keep those people safe." I winced slightly at the unexpected shout. "Kean, let's go."

Wait, we were going to go secure the next hanger with just the two of... Athame's ass, I couldn't just let her fucking go it alone. Shit was already changing if she was working with Nihlus this far in advance, which made it entirely possible that she could be killed long before the games' timeline even really got started.

Which would be... bad.

Hesitating just long enough to swap my guns around, Shepard hadn't needed much help so far so it was likely better for me to go with my hand cannon over my smg. It would be easier to use overloads in sequence with it, letting me work my way through targets faster than I could with the other weapon. That change out of the way, I accelerated into a slow jog to follow the Spectre candidate across the hanger, my eyes searching the walls for a control panel as we moved.

"There." She located it before I could, the pair of us shifting direction slightly to head towards the corner. "I'll get it down, we need a sitrep from the other team."

Grunting in agreement, I brought my left hand up to my helmet, tapping one of the tiny panels near my ear. "Thul, status?"

" _Just secured the pod."_ The heavy bark of his rifle punctuated the statement. " _The human officer is opening the cells now."_

"Good." Slowing to a stop, I half-watched as Shepard carefully began inspecting the controls, manipulating them after a few moments of examination. "We have our hanger secured, Voya is cleaning out the ship with Magnus."

 _"It's done."_ Said Quarian interrupted me. I winced a little at the giddiness in her voice, normally she only sounded that ecstatic if she'd knifed someone and enjoyed it thoroughly. " _Just a pilot on board, the rest of the crew left on leave."_

"How long until the engines are prepared?"

" _Not long, this is a slaver's ship Cie. They're always ready to bolt at the sign of trouble."_

That was something. "Prep it, and see what guns it has. Thul, how long until you're here?"

There was short pause before he replied, _"The Turian says ten to fifteen, we're moving them but these people aren't military veterans."_

From his slightly aggravated tones, I took that to mean there was confusion, bickering, and a general lack of understanding just how fucking urgent the situation was. "Move them as fast as you can, I want to be airborne before Ghen gets here with reinforcements."

" _Understood."_

"Shepard, you get all of that?"

"Yes. And the bulkhead." A claxon blared from just above us, making us both wince as yellow warning lights began to flash. Somewhere beneath us gears began to grind, the floor shuddering as the massive wall began to slide steadily downwards, sounds that could probably heard across the entire bloody city.

"Stealthy." I observed dryly. "You forget to turn the alarms off?"

"Just shut up and be ready." Shepard growled back, "Give me a full spread of overloads once the wall is down enough, then stay back and cover me."

Twitching a shoulder and my head into an Asari shrug, I flicked my omni-tool open and made sure that the first five mines were all of the appropriate type, and that the first one was set to go off after a set distance. When I'd finished with that, the bulkhead was maybe a third of the way down, leaving me rocking back and forth on my heels as I wondered what the fuck I was going to do about Voya.

On one hand I could entirely understand _why_ she'd done it, but there was the small matter that our ally and I had agreed to _not_ kill those pirates. I'd always known that she wasn't the most stable person around, she full on admitted that from time to time, but she almost never went against what I decided, and she'd _never_ done so in a combat situation that I could remember.

And then there was Shepard's reaction to consider. Instead of just having Voya or Kaiden override the door and lock it, she'd stormed in and killed the rest of them... which was rather going against what she'd said prior. The mess hall pirates had only had the one shit pistol and some cutlery between them, so far as I'd seen, so it wasn't as if we'd been in any danger from them. Athame's tits, she hadn't even given them a chance to surrender.

"Be ready." Her voice broke me from my thoughts, and making me realize that the bulkhead was nearly low enough for us to see over.

Letting out a long breath, I flexed the fingers on both hands and shifted forwards, dropping to a knee to let the wall drop enough for me to pop up and send overloads flying without risking that my head would be taken off by someone waiting before I could retaliate. "Say when."

The Commander nodded, keeping herself securely in the corner, her helmet tilting as she watched the metal move. "Now!"

Jerking upright, my left hand moved forwards. The first one wasn't aimed, I didn't want to wait to find a target, instead simply whipping outwards to explode in a distracting flash of lightning and blue light, hopefully fucking with anyone already aiming at me. It might have worked, or maybe the pirates in the other hanger were just bad shots. Either way, most of the initial fusillade that came in my direction went wide or high, tracer rounds skipping past as I tried to identify the shooters.

Unlike the defenders of thirty-four, the men and women in thirty-five had realized that they were about to be attacked, and had taken steps to fortify their position. The small utility vehicles and service equipment had been removed from the walls, hurriedly thrown into a makeshift fort around their freighter's lowered ramp. While that wasn't good news, my next observation was worse.

The deep thrumming that I'd thought was part of the bulkhead's motors wasn't. It was the crew of the other ship trying to bring it's engines online... and if they did, there was a very large turret on top of their raiding vessel.

Swearing, I quickly triggered my next mine, sending it flying towards the four or five people in cover, only to swear again when it dove early and slammed uselessly into their cover. "Shepard! Problem!"

Jerking her head around the corner, she napped off a short burst from her rifle, then paused before letting out an oath of her own as she realized the problem. "Cover me! We have to get on board!"

Not giving me time to argue, she planted a hand on the still lowering wall and vaulted it when it was about waist high. Swallowing against my suddenly dry throat, I forced myself to follow, though I'll admit to be far less graceful, stumbling as my feet hit the ground on the other side.

Knowing that even if I sprinted I couldn't catch up to Shepard, I focused on making sure that she could get to the ramp alive. Jerking my hand up, I triggered another overload with a gesture, the mine screaming past her head before dipping to detonate amongst the understandably confused pirates.

"My shields are down!"

"Stay up! Kill that bitch! Kill-Christ!" The speaker dropped with a scream when Shepard put three rounds into his shoulder, her legs positively eating up the distance as she sprinted.

Keeping up as best as I could, I triggered my next mines in sequence as our remaining opponents got their shit together, snapping up to try and pour all of their fire into the lead target. One, the same Batarian woman who'd ducked after the first overload, did so again, but her three companions seemed to steel themselves and remain upright even as my next two kept their kinetic barriers firmly down.

For her part, Shepard remained a paragon of efficiency even as the incoming fire broke through her barriers to slam into her gleaming tech plates. She fired three bursts inside of ten steps, and three pirates tumbled backwards with their vulnerable helmets shattered.

By the fucking Goddess... she didn't miss _once_. Or even fucking _slow down._

She followed that up by launching herself over a refueling cart, skidding to a stop and firing a longer series of shots that resulted in a deep shriek as the final defender died, leaving my panting ass free to catch up.

"Athame's ass." I breathed a few moments later, absently shifting my gun around to put a shot into the still twitching man with the shoulder wound. "That was..."

Her helmet shook then turned away, "Compliments later, we need to clear this ship."

Nodding, I brought my weapon into a proper two-handed grip and then followed her as she headed up the ramp. Instead of entering a cargo bay or some kind of slave pen, we ended up in something closer to a regular hallway, complete with what looked like cabins lining the wall in either direction.

"Take right, I've got left." She instructed. "We check each cabin then hit the stairwell at the end of the hall."

"Got it." Sticking to that side, I moved with her, checking each room with my weapon up and ready but finding nothing beyond the usual personal affects I'd expect to see. Clothes, empty bottles, that kind of thing.

The narrow, two-level stairwell proved equally empty, depositing us in another hall on the level above. This one had fewer doors at least, with two rather large ones near the center leading fore and aft.

"Left will be the bridge, aft will take us past the cargo hold and to the engines." I was glad that she at least knew the layout, because if the doors had ever had labels they'd been removed. "We're going forwards."

"Works for me." I murmured back, the pair of us quickly approaching the door in question. "I'll try and lock the aft door before we break in."

"Good thinking." While she shifted back and left to cover me, I approached the controls, bringing a hand up to tap the button that would hopefully seal them and protect our backs.

Of course, the second before I could touch the glowing panel, the goddess-damned thing slid open to reveal a Batarian who didn't seemed surprised to see me in the slightest. Jerking backwards, I tried to hurl myself into the wall when he opened fire with an SMG, the rounds quickly hammering my barriers down to depletion before I got back around the corner.

Snarling, he pursued, only to jump back as well when Shepard put several rounds into his chest armor. Not in the mood to let him go, she quickly moved up to get a good enough angle to finish him... which left her near the fucking bridge door when it slid open to reveal a pair of Turians. Neither was in armor, they were probably the bridge crew left behind to monitor the ship, but they were still fucking Turians and Shep had been facing the wrong way.

Both were wielding pistols, and rushed forwards as they fired, trying to get close enough for her barriers to not activate. Ricochets flew off of her tech plates as she swore, trying to bring her rifle around only to have one of her opponents grab it with a taloned hand and force it away from them.

The Turian's triumphant, mandible splayed grin lasted until my Executioner decorated the walls blue with his brains. His partner let out a shriek of pure fury, dropping his gun before actually tackling Shepard, the pair of them cursing in two languages.

Not wasting another moment, I shifted over, drawing my right leg back before slamming my armored boot into his bared face. There was a yowl of pain as he rolled off of the human woman, the sound cutting out I put a round into his screaming mouth.

Belatedly remembering the third ambushers, I was turning when the Batarian stepped back out of cover and opened fire again. This time my barriers weren't in any shape to protect me, and at the range we were at my light armor wasn't much good either. Several rounds skipped off the plating before at least one smacked through my bicep and threw me into a world of pain.

The pirate let out a triumphant roar, started to shift his aim, and then collapsed backwards when a still prone Shepard blasted his stomach apart at full auto.

"One tiny fucking mistake." She growled, collecting her legs and rising back to her feet while I let myself slump against the wall. "How bad?"

"Just flesh." A deep throb made me hiss in pain. "Always my fucking left side."

She seemed to hesitate, then stepped forwards to do a quick check through both opened doors. "We're clear. Come on, seats in the bridge."

Tucking my wounded limb against my chest, and keeping my gun firmly in my other hand, I followed her inside. The bridge really wasn't much, maybe four chairs for the crew set into half-sunken pits around a far more comfortable looking throne for the Captain to observe them from.

Naturally I sat in the last one while Shepard focused on finding the weapons controls, cutting power to the turrets fairly quickly before moving onto another station. "Checking their systems... looks like the only other people on board are in pens in the cargo hold, they must have put the workers there to keep them out of the way."

"Probably." Setting aside my weapon, I half-closed my eyes as I started rummaging around my belt for my medigel packet. "Please tell me there aren't any pirates hiding amongst them because I'm fucking tired."

"There aren't." I heard her grunt and move around, and then hands were grabbing my left arm to straighten it, exposing the wound properly as I finally found what I was looking for.

"Thanks."

One of her shoulders twitched. "Repaying you for the hallway. Give me that, easier with two hands."

Letting her take it, I let my armored skull fall back against the headrest as she tore the small tube open. "At least this ship is powered up already, you can get out of here quickly."

"Agreed." Cold gel made me grimace, then sag as the anesthetic kicked in. "And you can collect your money."

"My Commander can." I corrected. "I don't particularly care about the credits."

She paused, head cocking to one side. "What kind of mercenary doesn't care about the credits?"

"One who was rich before he became one." Glancing down, I twitched the fingers of my left hand and nodded when I didn't feel more than a slight throb. Shifting my right hand up to my helmet, I changed the subject before she could try to ask about anything else. "Voya, Thul. Sitrep."

" _We're approaching the hanger now."_ The former priest reported as Shepard threw the empty medigel container aside, letting me adjust my armor a bit on my own. " _We're hurrying everyone along, the smoke is growing worse out here."_

I grimaced. "Direct the civilians to Thirty-Five, their ship is prepared."

" _As is ours."_ Voya reported. " _Magnus is directing her people who aren't armed on board, the rest are covering the doorways."_

"Tell her to keep them there until the humans are in the hanger, than lock all of the doors and get themselves on board." Nodding to Shepard as she stepped back, I slowly forced myself back to my tired legs. "I'm on my way, I'll transmit to the Circle from our ship."

They both acknowledged that and signed off, leaving me and Shepard to collect our weapons before shuffling back into the hallway and towards the stairs.

She spoke when we were moving down the first flight. "I suppose I should thank you for making this mission easier."

"I suppose I should do the same, though I hope you'll understand if I hope to never see you again?"

Something like amusement colored her voice. "Under the circumstance, I don't suppose I can blame you. N7 teams and hardened mercenaries usually don't meet up for drinks."

I snorted. "No they don't. I'm counting it as a win that you and your Turian friend are letting us leave in peace as it is."

"After the mess hall..." her voice lowered, a hint of anger returning. "You should consider it a win."

Swallowing, I kept my composure thanks to having plenty of practice acting tough and ruthless in front of the Eclipse. "They were pirates and slavers."

"Unarmed men and women." She corrected darkly. "That pathetic pistol the Batarian had wasn't even a real weapon."

I exhaled as we exited the stairwell, moving between the empty cabins as we headed towards the crew ramp. "I'm not going to argue with you Shepard. Let's just get this done and go our separate ways."

Rather and agree or disagree with that, she simply fell silent again. The pair of us exited the modified freighter and made our way back across the hanger far more slowly than our initial trip. Sure enough, by about the time we got to where the bulkhead had once divided the two hangers, humans were pouring in through the doorway, an armored Turian out in front.

Nihlus quickly corralled Jenkins, the various slaves the young man had been watching over joining the general migration in our direction with the two soldiers escorting them.

Passing the Spectre without a glance, I heard him greet Shepard as she peeled off, heading back the direction we'd just come from without a word of farewell. Which was probably for the best, if we'd kept talking she'd probably have tried to arrest us or something.

Taking advantage of a gap in the line, I cut across, muttering apologies when I nearly ran over a dark skinned woman in the process. I blinked in confusion as her face tugged at a memory, but by the time I glanced back she'd already vanished back into the line.

"Cieran." Voya was waiting at our freighter's ramp when I arrived, two Turian men clutching battered rifles they'd probably taken from dead pirates guarding either side of it. "Of course you're wounded."

"Voya." I replied. "Of course you're covered in blood."

She shrugged, the motion throwing the red splotches across her chest into relief. "It's not like it's my blood."

Sighing, I could only shake my head. "Just patch me into the ships communications, and tell Commander Magnus to start pulling her people back. Do we know where Ghen is?"

"Racing back here and sounding a full recall of his crew." Her omni-tool snapped to life, my own following suit as she once again bypassed my latest password. "Channel three will get you the Circle's main line."

Grunting in thanks, I brushed past her and headed up the ramp, opening the appropriate channel as I did so. "This is Executive Officer ul Kean, Silver Blades mercenary unit. Direct this call to the Circle."

_"Who the... why in the Pillars should I!? Get off this line, there's a slave revolt-"_

"There is no slave revolt." I snapped back in Highborn Batarian, not in the slightest mood ready to deal with him. "It is a rescue operation for members of Lady Warlord Yan T'Ravt's personal army who were abducted by Ghen ul Ishiak. Do I have your fucking attention now?"

There was dead silence for a very long moment, and then a new Batarian voice cut in, speaking the same tongue as I was. " _Officer Kean. This is Kirial ul Desheka of the Circle, you have my undivided attention."_

"Good." Exhaling as my feet carried me past empty cabins, I was glad to find that this ship was apparently the same as the other in terms of the interior. "I have rescued the Warlord's soldiers, and will be departing in two of Ghen's ships that we have liberated. Clearance codes to depart without being fired upon would be appreciated."

 _"You will have them."_ The apparently exiled highborn assured me. " _Please convey my sincere apologies to the Lady Warlord, we were informed that the Turians that ul Ishiak acquired were from a minor pirate group in the Dark Rim. We of the Circle have no interest in provoking a Warlord of her stature."_

I grunted quietly as I reached the stairwell, forcing my tired legs to carry me up them. "I will convey your respects and my appreciation for your cooperation in this matter..." My voice trailed as a new source of inspiration struck me. "You may also wish to know that ul Ishiak has a private bounty on his head for the sum of one million credits. My team is currently in no condition to claim it, but in thanks for your prompt assistance I would be glad to support your claim of it before T'Ravt."

A short pause followed before he spoke again, his voice noticeably warmer. " _I believe that we have a deal, Officer. A good and profitable day to you."_

"And to you." Cutting the line, I let out a long breath as I reached the top of the stairs. Revealing my real last name hadn't been bright, even if I'd tried to conceal it a bit by added the exiled denotation. But offering the man a million credits would hopefully be enough to make him decide to not dig any further, at least until we were off planet.

Ideally he would also actually be intelligent enough to realize that T'Ravt would not be thrilled if a ship full of her people was to end up dead in the middle of a rescue operation. While she wouldn't be able to spare ground troops, she probably could send a capital ship or two to cleanse the place.

Eventually my feet brought me to the bridge, the only occupant being Commander Magnus. The Turian turned, half-reaching for her weapon before realizing that it was me. "Kean. Are we clear to leave?"

"Soon as everyone is on board." To my annoyance this ship lacked a dedicated Captain's chair, instead featuring only open space in front of several displays. "This ship intact enough to get us to Omega?"

"Not quite." She turned back to her console, her talons flicking at several buttons to bring up a small map of the galaxy for me. "The ship could but supplies are an issue, there isn't sufficient food on board for everyone, and I don't think you want to stay on world long enough to purchase enough. The nearest friendly planet is Theodosius, a day and a half by the nearest relay. We can report in there, and the Lady Warlord can get you a ship back for Omega."

Which wouldn't cost us that much time, hopefully. "That works, lock in the course and tell your people to get their asses on this boat. Time to fucking leave this shithole."

Preferably before I ran into anyone else that would horrifically complicate my life.

* * *

_**Alliance News Network** _

_In better news, citizens on Horizon were thrilled beyond words when Lieutenant-Commander Kaya Shepard, Lionness of Elysium, arrived aboard a stolen pirate freighter yesterday morning. The celebrated hero was not alone, having personally rescued more than fifty members of the colony who had been abducted by slavers in a raid two weeks ago._

_When asked if she was working with a Spectre Officer as many news stations have reported, she politely declined to comment, instead praising the skill and bravery of her personal team. After personally ensuring that all of the rescued citizens were being properly cared for, the Commander returned to Alliance space, ready for her next heroic mission._

* * *

_**Next up is Interlude II: Broken Reunions** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so ends Shepard's first involvement in Cieran's life, or perhaps Cieran's first involvement in Shepard's. Either way it didn't exactly end on a high note, which will make the next time they meet quite interesting. (And yes, they will be meeting again in Vengeance).
> 
> We're going to move onto a pair of quick interludes next, one taking place on Omega, I'm sure most people can guess who is going to be involved based on the title. ;). After that, Cieran will finally be getting back to Illium for a very short vacation before we go into the next operation.
> 
> I've already got the next interlude mostly completed and am working on the second, so the quick-post rules are back in effect. 12 reviews in 24 hours will get the next chapter out. :)
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	11. Interlude II: Broken Reunions

_I don't own the Mass Effect._

* * *

**Interlude II: Broken Reunions**

_Date:08-14-2182_

_Location: Omega, The Terminus_

* * *

Nine long days of travel later found us finally returned to the Terminus's black heart, though thankfully we didn't end up staying in Gozu after the troop transport had dropped us off. Ayle and Team One had apparently returned the day before, and had done a sufficiently good job that Sederis was letting us stay in one of the apartments that the Eclipse owned in Doru. It wasn't one of the best on station by any means, but it was far better than being stuck in one of the the 'better' ones in Gozu.

"Kean." Hesh met the four of us at our room's door, the slender Batarian male ducking his head left as mine dipped minutely to the right. "Welcome to our palace."

I rolled my single set of eyes before pushing past him. Like most Omega dwellings, the front door opened into a broad living area with an attached kitchen, with a half dozen rooms attached to the circular area. "Your definition of palace leaves a lot to be desired. Hey Ullak."

The other member of Ayle's cadre gave me a deferential nod, but kept all of his eyes focused on his grenade launcher as he carefully stripped the heavy weapon.

While Voya, Thul, and Shyeel shuffled in behind me, I stepped aside before frowning. "Where's everyone else?"

"The combat humans are in their room, either having sex, doing drugs, or both." Hesh twitched a shoulder as he headed back towards the small kitchen area. "Our Tarath'shan is meeting with a potential sponsor, and she took Jarick with her."

I blinked slowly, tilting my head in confusion. "What kind of sponsor?"

He shrugged again. "Marcus says the best way to get Aria's attention is to become well known. I believe it's a combination equipment and publicity deal."

"Publicity." Athame's ass... "Whatever, she thinks it's a good idea, she can go for it. Which room?"

"Yourself and Voya are in that one."

Me and Voya. Because we were getting along _so_ well right now. Mostly because of circumstances, I hadn't had the chance to properly confront her while we'd been on one packed ship, and then on another. We hadn't even been able to sleep in a room that was crowded with at least four or more other people, all of us packed in and exhausted.

In more breaking news, Turians were covered in fucking spikes, so it was even less comfortable than you'd expect.

The second ship would have ideally given me a chance to bitch her out, but that had gone out to sea when she'd realized that the entire engineering staff was composed of other Terminus Quarians. She'd promptly vanished for the duration of the trip, emerging without a word of fucking explanation just before we docked. About the only bright side had been me and Shyeel discovering a cabal of Turians playing cards who had had no ability whatsoever to realize that we were cheating on almost every hand, leaving both of us several hundred credits richer.

We'd oddly bonded over the experience of fleecing idiots from their money, and it had been relaxing if nothing else. Thul had seemed to approve that we were socializing... sort of. Oddly he didn't really get involved, mostly just contenting himself with observing us and reading novels on his omni-tool.

"Please tell me the rooms have showers at least." Said Asari spoke up, removing her helmet and making a show of gesturing at me. "His fur is more grease than anything else. It's disgusting."

Rolling my eyes, I gave her a rude gesture and headed towards the room that Hesh had pointed at, working on loosing some of my armor as I did. "Where's my power armor?"

"Already transferred to the ship taking you to Illium." Ullak finally spoke, his rich voice rumbling as his upper eyes flicked in my direction. "You leave tomorrow from the Eclipse dock, usual ship."

Grunting, I thanked him for the news and then finished shuffling into the room. A silent Voya followed in my wake, shutting the door behind her as I worked in ripping the armor plates off for the first time in a fucking week.

"Cie-"

"Shower first." I cut her off. "If this is how you feel after spending a week in your suit I suddenly have a whole new appreciation for your hatred of it."

She snorted, stepping forwards to help get my backplate off once I loosened it. "Fine, but I'm showering before you try and bitch me out for something you wanted to do anyway."

Shaking my head, I focused on getting out of the armor so I could get clean. It also gave me a chance to check on my latest wound, which seemed to be healing neatly. If I was lucky it wouldn't result in yet another scar on that side of my body.

Ten minutes later I emerged wet if clean, pulling a plain shirt over my head before resuming the very long process of toweling out my long hair. I was still brushing the stupidly long strands when she emerged from the tiny bathroom a half hour later, her wild mane still dripping water onto her black shirt.

We didn't talk about anything at first, settling onto our respective beds and checking our omni-tools for any priority items that we might have missed. When my inbox failed to have anything interesting, I shifted to the news, letting her curiosity and irritation build as she tried and failed to stop her gleaming eyes from flicking in my direction.

"All right." She snapped after a quarter hour of silence. "I've been avoiding you."

"Really?" I didn't even look her way, "I had no idea."

There was a low growl. "Stop being a sarcastic bosh'tet."

My right shoulder twitched. "Why should I?"

"Because it annoys me."

"You disregarding an agreement I made with an ally goes a bit beyond annoyance on my end."

Voya growled again. "They were pirates, slavers, and scum. They deserved death."

"Yup."

"If you fucking agree than why is this such an issue!?"

This time I did glance up, my eyes narrowing in a glare that was apparently severe enough for her to swallow nervously. "Because I fucking agreed to go along with Shepard. Because she's skilled enough to kill all of us. Because there was a fucking Spectre with her who could have killed us all even _more_ easily. I was _trying_ to appease them to give us the best odds of walking out alive."

"You're too cautious." She continued to press, her head shaking. "So long as we got the civilians out they would have-"

"You _knew_ that?" I shot back. "You _knew_ that enough to risk all four of our lives? All forty plus of Magnus's people?"

My friend flinched slightly, her voice lowering. "They were slavers..."

Growling, I snapped my omni-tool off and rose to my feet so that I could properly glare down at her. "Sometimes we have to let them walk, you fucking _know_ that. You've known that since I freed you. You also know that I always support you taking them out whenever we can, _provided it doesn't risk our lives._ "

Another wince was followed by the damaged woman glancing away so that her curtain of white hair covered her face from my view.

Exhaling heavily, I shook my head tiredly. "Athame's ass Voya... What am I supposed to do with you? You're one of a few people I honestly trust with my life but right now I seriously want to beat you senseless. Not in a friendly sparring way either. Ayle is already pissy because you never obey her orders if I don't second them, if she realizes that you don't even listen to me she won't let you stay in the unit."

Even with her hair in the way I saw her flinch again. She was unstable but not stupid, if Ayle kicked her out I'd have to make a choice between staying with her, or staying with the Blades and my best chance of avenging Rane.

"I'll..." Voya seemed to swallow heavily. "Try..."

Anything else she would have said was cut off when there was a heavy rap on our door followed by Hesh's voice calling to us. " _Kean, our Tarath'shan is back with a guest. She wants to talk with you."_

Right when we finally make some kind of breakthrough... Athame's fucking ass. I didn't miss the way she seemed to slump in relief had not having to finish her sentence, or promise me anything. "Is that an order?"

" _Yes. It's important sir."_

"Athame's motherfucking ancient azure..." Muttering non-stop curses didn't make me feel any better, even if Voya snorted a some of her good humor was restored. Shaking my hair out of my face, I stomped over the door and smacked the controls.

It had barely snapped open when I was outside, my voice irritated as I growled at Ayle. "Ayle, what is this fucking..."

My voice trailed as my feet slowed to an automatic stop, my entire body locking up at the sight of the woman next to the other Reyja'krem.

Nynsi Shaaryak was... just as gorgeous as she'd been the day she'd exiled me and kicked me out of her home. The same long ears, the same down-turned nose, the same smooth teal skin. She'd at least dressed practically for Omega, the heavy armor I'd helped both put on and take off hiding her muscled body from view.

Fuck. Just seeing her brought back a tidal wave of emotion that I'd thought I'd buried a long time ago.

"Reyja'krem Kean." The title, which I normally hated, actually helped in this case. If she'd called me Harath'krem I'd have probably broken down entirely... especially with the way her voice quivered on my last name, her eyes moving up and down to take in my appearance before she controlled herself. "It's been a while."

"Matriarch Shaaryak." I needed a long breath to keep my voice level, forcing the old longing, the pain, and the anger all back and away. Once I was sure I was in control of myself, I politely tilted my head to the left to the degree demanded by her station. "I had thought you would already be off station."

She dipped her head to the right, quickly returning it to neutral as I did the same. "I wished to speak with Reyja'krem Ayle about this mercenary company before I agreed to sponsor you."

Nynsi was... "Why would you want to sponsor us?"

Her face schooled into a neutral mask. "The family's fortunes have improved since the Balak clan's sabotage and disruption, but could still grow further. My assets being attached to a rising unit would be mutually beneficial. You receive press and equipment, I receive customers hoping to emulate your successes."

I made a slight show of nodding, shifting my gaze to Ayle. "That sounds potentially workable, but that would be for our Commander to decide."

"We already have an agreement." If Ayle was apologetic for making me face my former Tarath'shan and lover, she didn't sound it. "I need a full listing of everything you want in terms of upgrades for our gear, I want to go over it before you leave for Illium. You can bring it back with you when you return."

A muscle twitched uncomfortably in my cheek. "I will put a list together for us to go over in the morning."

"You can't do so now?" She tilted her head minutely to the left, making it clear that this wasn't an order but instead an honest question.

"Ayle, we just got back from a very fucked up mission and a horrific return trip." I shook my head slightly. "It can wait until I've slept."

Ayle nodded slightly. "Very well. Matriarch, didn't you also bring with parts for his armor?"

"Yes, they have already been delivered to the Eclipse cruiser apparently housing it." Her upper eyes blinked slowly, focusing on mine while her lower set seemed to avert themselves before flicking back to me.

She wasn't here to talk with Ayle... not entirely. She was here because she wanted to see me. And for some reason... that seriously annoyed me. She'd thrown me out of her house, her life, made it clear I was never going to see her again, had sided with a Hegemony that didn't care about her instead of with me... and now she was on Omega.

Because she wanted to see me.

Forcing my expression to return to bland neutrality, I flicked my gaze between her and Ayle before speaking. "My thanks for the parts, Matriarch. Is there anything else Ayle, or can I try and get some sleep?"

"Preferably more than two hours." Voya spoke up from behind me, her voice just short of vicious even through the re-breathing mask she'd apparently pulled on. Which made sense, all that she knew about Nynsi had come from Rane and I. "For once."

Skin tightened around Nynsi's lower eyes, but otherwise she didn't react. "Reyja'krem, if you could also include any parts you desire to modify your armor, please include them in your list. I will expect to meet with in Nos Astra, I believe you remember the numbers to contact."

"I do."

She seemed to wait for me to say more, and gave another imperceptible wince when I did not. "Then I shall see you on Illium. Commander Ayle, a pleasure to conduct business with you."

"Always a pleasure to work with a female clan head." Ayle returned, the pair of them bowing their heads politely.

And then Nynsi was gone... but not before I noticed that her armor remained flattering around her ass.

Dammit. "Ayle, what the fuck was that."

The woman's lower eyes flicked in my direction. "That was the woman willing to provide us with high end upgrades, tech mines, whatever supplies we need at steep discounts. She's also going cover half of the cost for someone to publicize our missions. If she wants to meet with you, of course I'm going to allow it."

"By the fucking goddess..." Reaching up, I pinched the bridge of my nose. "I am not happy about this."

"Then you should not have proposed that I lead this company." She returned tartly, turning away from me to walk towards the kitchen where Jarick was trying to be invisible. He'd largely succeeded, I hadn't even realized he'd come back with her. "I'm not telling you to make nice, but I expect you to be professional enough to not sabotage our working relationship with her. Understood?"

"Yes." I growled. "Now is there anything _else_ that can fucking go wrong or can I go to sleep?"

Ayle waved a hand. "Go, I'll let Thul give me the details of your mission beyond what you sent."

Stomping back into the bedroom, I heard Voya shut the door once again. Still moving, I started accelerating to begin a good fuming bit of pacing before two petite hands shoved me in the small of my back, sending me collapsing into a bed.

Before I could protest, I found my pipe and a bag of chehala being shoved into my hands. Grunting something that might have been thanks, I forced my hands to go through the usual motions of preparing the thing, and soon enough had smoke curling around me as I puffed furiously on the thing.

"You can bitch at me some more if it will help." She offered when I didn't show any signs of talking.

My head shook slightly. "You know what you did and what I want, and that moment is fucking gone."

One of her slim shoulders rose and fell. "What about-"

"Voya."

She quieted, moving to sit beside me. Her small frame leaned into my side, her omni-tool flicking to life as she took her turn at reading the news. We stayed that way for nearly an hour, me chain-smoking while she read, neither of us saying a word. Eventually there was enough of the drug in my system to effect me, the Quarian helping to put everything away as I collapsed sideways.

Rather than going into her own bed she settled down beside me, resting our foreheads together for a long moment before shifting back a bit and getting comfortable.

The worst thing was I couldn't even look forwards to going back to Illium the next day... I was too worried about what was about to go wrong next.

* * *

_**Nos Astra News Tonight** _

_In economic news, the resurgence of the various corporations owned by the Batarian Shaaryak family continue their slow resurgence after last year's financial difficulties. The expanding war in the deep Terminus has been a particular boon to CEO Nynsi Shaaryak, who has heavily enlarged her family's ownership in several arms groups, as well as founding two new military suppliers herself._

_Additionally, she and the Vasir family have arranged for several minor business mergers that have assisted in staving off attempted takeovers by larger corporations in Nos Astra. This has allowed both groups to maintain their stranglehold on the district's economy, a fact that both the Asari and Batarian citizens seem to appreciate, as hiring as spiked sharply._

* * *

_**Next up is Interlude III: Jedi Truths** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Nynsi is finally back, and Cieran is rather conflicted in how to handle her appearance. Nor does he seem terribly thrilled that she isn't going to be leaving his life anytime soon thanks to Ayle. Probably a good business decision on her part to boost their reputation a bit, even if it's only going to lead to more issues for poor Cie.
> 
> In the continuing good news, the next chapter is done, so 12 reviews in 1 day gets it out immediately, otherwise it will post on Friday.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	12. Interlude III: Jedi Truths

_I don't own the Mass Effect._

* * *

**Interlude III: Jedi Truths**

_Date:08-19-2182_

_Location: Nos Astra, Illium_

* * *

Trena T'laria was waiting for us when the shuttle landed in the mansion's hanger, but my oldest friend obviously wasn't mentally present. I could tell because she just kept staring into space when Voya, Jarick, and I stepped off and walked right up to her, her eyes not even blinking until I dropped my bag so that I could snap my fingers in her face.

"Athame's ass!" She actually jumped backwards at the sound and motion, shaking herself violently. "What the fuck ape!?"

"We've been standing here for a minute scales." I sighed, resisting the urge to rub at my forehead. "Seriously, we haven't seen each other in a year and you're just standing there like that? What the fuck is wrong with you now?"

"There's nothing fucking wrong, it's... just... I'm..." Her voice trailed, the thousand yard stare returning as her mind seemed to go blank.

"This is your best friend?" Voya muttered through her mask, her head shaking while she shifted her duffel bag around her shoulders. "Suddenly I feel incredibly insulted."

I was debating how hard I should hit her to get her to snap out of it when two more Asari arrived, and one of them solved the problem by shrieking in excitement. Trena promptly jumped again, cursing up a storm as a blue colored blur rushed past her to practically tackle me.

"Cieran!"

"Erana." I gasped, staggering backwards as the maiden tried to crush my chest. "Hey."

Before she could launch into a babble attack, her sister came to my rescue, her voice far too amused. "Sis, come on, let the boss breathe."

The maiden jumped backwards with a flush, stuttering out an apology. I managed to get a solid lungful of air before Illyan grabbed me, her massive thews easily hefting me off my feet as she took her turn of trying to kill me. "Hey Jarick, how's mercenary life treating you?"

"Miss Illyan." The kid seemed half concerned, half amused as I tried to free an arm to punch my captor. "It's not quite what I imagined, but isn't as bad as I feared. Everyone seems to enjoy my cooking and I don't have to do that much work."

"Good." Completely ignoring my struggles, the massive Asari shifted slightly, her voice going noticeably cool. "Voya. I see no one's killed you yet."

"Illyan." The Quarian sounded equally as happy to see her. "Put Cieran down before he decides to shoot you, getting bloodstains out of his clothing is a pain."

"As cordial as ever." I could feel her rumble before she let me go, at least helping to keep me upright when I staggered. "Good to see you boss."

"Illyan." The word was more of a gasp as I tried to re-inflate my lungs. "Same. The fuck... is up... with scales?"

"Trena?" She snorted. "Ghai and Ethanya are finally sleeping, so she's taking the moment to freak out properly."

Ghai and...

"Trena what the _fuck_!" Pushing away from the larger Asari, I stumbled over to scales and hit her over the head. "You were supposed to fucking tell me!"

"Stop fucking hitting, no don't you fucking-" It was my turn to hug someone, yanking the short woman against my side before she could finish telling me not to, "Ape!"

Letting her go, I gently hit her on the crest to remind her that I was still a little annoyed. "Are they all right?"

"They're fine." She took a few quick steps back, rubbing her crest as she glared half-heartedly at me. "They're... goddess."

"She was good until the aftermath." Illyan rumbled, moving up next to me as Trena blanked yet again. "Then she actually realized that she was a father and her mind drifted out to sea."

I couldn't help but snort, my lips tugging into a grin. "Typical scales. Come on, she'll catch up eventually."

Picking up my bag, I let Illyan and Erana guide the three of us out, leaving Trena staring at nothing in particular behind us. She realized that we were leaving just after we departed the hanger, her cursing filling the air before she ran to catch up with us.

"I should fucking beat you senseless." She growled she finally did so, shoving her way to walk next to me and ignoring the annoyed glare that Voya threw at her. "Not even fucking sympathetic."

"If you want sympathy, don't get her pregnant when you're drunk next time."

Her skin darkened. "Cieran."

"Just saying." I twitched a shoulder. "Please tell me she takes after Ghai instead of you."

"I'm going to fucking kill you one day, you know that right?" There was a long pause before she seemed to grudgingly admit the next bit. "And she looks just like her mother."

"Good." Letting out a long breath, I felt my lips curl into a another smile. "Happy for you Trena."

"I... thanks." She managed, flicking her gem colored eyes at me and then away. "But... goddess. Between Erana and Sederis all I hear is how adorable she is. Can we talk about killing things for a while?"

I snorted but nodded to show I'd take at least _some_ pity on her. "All right. We've gotten our first sets of missions done with, mostly minor raids. It's given us a decent war chest to work with. Nynsi moving to sponsor us is stretching it out pretty far, especially since Captain Vasir conned her cousin, or whatever family member owns that one place, into selling us new omni-tools at the same discount."

"Military grade." Voya's groan was almost lustful as she moved up on my other side, our little party turning down another massive hall as Illyan kept leading us onwards. "So much more efficient than the crap we've been using."

"Still leaves you working with that bitch again, can't believe she fucking went out to Omega as it is." Trena growled before belatedly seeming to realize that she didn't know the woman on my left. "You're.. Voya right?"

"You aren't terribly observant, are you? How did you survive to reproduce?"

"What the fuck did you just say bitch?"

"Keelah, so you're both deaf _and_ stupid. Cieran, is she already senile?"

I groaned and wished that I had my cane out so I could hit them both with the heavy thing. Ignoring them, I lengthened my strides to catch up with Illyan. "Where are we going?"

"Your rooms, then..." Her voice lowered. " _She_ wants to talk with you for a while."

"Lovely." Tuning out the women behind me who had shifted from insults to death threats, I glanced at the tall Asari. "Everything heal all right?"

"I'm good boss." She assured me before glancing down. "You all right?"

I pressed my lips together. "Lot of crap going on in the background, making shit more complicated than I'd like, but we've had a decent enough start."

"Not what I meant boss."

My right shoulder twitched. "I know."

The massive Asari sighed. "Glad to see you're still the same. There's a bar in the east wing, they know how to make a good Moonrise. We can hit that after your meeting with her royal fucking highness."

"Illyan." Erana hissed. "Don't call her that."

Blue lips twisted. "Sorry sis. Boss, don't suppose you've got a spot on your team for me?"

"Don't even think about it." Trena jumped back into the conversation, "You're my fucking assistant remember?"

"She'll get bored of having you around eventually." I patted Illyan on a massive forearm when she hung her head dispondantly. "I'll talk with Ayle, could probably use help with my power armor. Voya hates working on it."

"Because you're never fucking satisfied." Said Quarian groused from behind me. "What's your latest idea? The one with the grenades?"

"A flak field." I supplied, noticing the way Trena practically jumped ahead of Illyan, her eyes lighting up. "Pretty sure I can fit two or three grenade tubes on each shoulder vertically with a few reloads, load them with directional fragmentation rounds to clear out everything in front of me."

"They'd be vulnerable to counter-fire when your barriers go down if you mount them outside the armor plating." Scales was still nodding slowly. "But that would sure as fuck make a mess of anything that got close."

"Especially with how they throw Vorcha around as if they're just ammo to be used up." I waved a hand slightly. "My main gun is fine for Krogan or small numbers, but the rate of fire isn't exactly a rainstorm. I'd rather not be swarmed again, limping my ass off a battlefield once was enough."

"You consider swapping it out for something lighter?"

"Briefly." I shrugged as we slowed down, Illyan stepping up to open a door for us. "Honestly I like the fact that I can actually kill Krogan too much to give it up."

"Nothing wrong with that." Voya pointed out. "Though I still say you should let me go with my idea."

Illyan groaned as entered the suite, stepping aside to let us move past. "Dare I ask?"

"She and Jacqueline have been taking the crests of Krogan we kill when they can." I shook my head, glancing around the surprisingly comfortable looking room. I'd been expecting the usual expensive but uncomfortable furniture most rich people seemed to adore, instead the various couches and body pillows looked clean but also very well used. "They want to break them into shards and dangle them from our armor."

"That's... nice." She looked a little ill at the idea.

"Mistress Ayle is still debating allowing it." Jarick spoke up as he snuck past Voya and Trena while the two seemed to be having a silent argument over who got to enter the room before the other. "I'm rather hoping she decides against it."

I grunted, tossing my bag onto the floor. I didn't particularly care either way. Wearing necklaces made from shattered Krogan crests was rather macabre but it would certainly lend us a piratical air. And it would probably infuriate the crap out of them when we fought, which was always a good thing. Krogan weren't nearly so slow and stupid as most of the media seemed to make them, but the Blood Rage was a rather crippling disadvantage in a fight. Anything to send them over the edge was probably worth considering.

"Illyan, you mind taking the kid to the bar? We'll meet you there after we talk with Sederis."

"Sure. Jarick, Erana. Come on." I ducked when she made to ruffle my long hair as she moved past, giving me a grin when I glowered at her. "Your drink will be waiting boss."

"Thanks."

Once the two maidens and the kid were gone, Trena seemed to slump slightly, glancing at Voya who only crossed her arms in reply. "How much does she know ape?"

"Everything."

Her blue lips twisted a little. "Everything?"

I shook my head tiredly, a lot of the contentment that seeing her, Illyan, and Erana had built up fading. "I needed to talk with someone after Omega, and you were still in blackout thanks to Aethtya."

She seemed to wince. "Ape..."

"Trena, just... get us to Sederis so we can get this over with."

Trena seemed to flush. "She's... not on planet. That was an excuse for us to talk."

...what. "What? Something wrong with a call?"

"Aethyta was fired remember?" Her arms crossed her chest as she shook her head. "Last we heard the Republics were forming intelligence to be an Illium-centric group until the war was over, with a big focus on the Eclipse. Sederis's people are keeping them out of most of their lines but she can't guarantee they're secure anymore."

"Great." Sighing, I shuffled over to drop onto a couch, letting my back relax for once. "You want me to go through the crap I'm dealing with, or do you want to start?"

"Fifty credits says my news is worse." It wasn't often that I heard her sound... nervous, but my normally confident companion was visibly trying to resist the urge to look away.

"I'll take that bet." Voya groaned a she dropped into a nearby chair. "We ran into Shepard."

Trena's mouth dropped open, then snapped shut as she swallowed. "You... the fucking Shepard from your will? The Alliance hero?"

"Yeah." I rushed the word out before Voya could say anything snide. "Plus Nihlus Kryik, apparently she's up for Spectre candidacy early."

"Guess I owe you fifty credits." Her words were weak, and she followed them with collapsing onto the other end of the couch from me. Both of her hands rose to rub furiously at her face. "Athame's ass ape, that's... shit."

"She also doesn't like me much." I made sure to glare at Voya there, the Quarian ducking her suited head. "So hopefully we won't run into her again anytime soon."

"That's just... Athame." Scales groaned.

"Yeah." Sighing, I shook my head slowly. "I've got a datapad for you and Sederis in my bag. Didn't learn much but it's an update. So what's your bad news?"

"I've... got a datapad for you too. Everything the old fish found out about the other human targets." She swallowed. "Including the guy you said Krom called Twelve."

I blinked, then frowned. "Wait, she knew about him?"

"We knew he was on Omega but not where. Tris was trying to find him... before." One of my hands twitched as I processed that. "They agreed not to tell you that there was another one on station. They thought you'd throw everything aside to find them."

Another twitch. "Yes. Because I'm a fucking moron who'd waste his time looking for two people on a station of eight million."

Scales winced. "Cieran-"

"We know you had his will long before he sent it to you." I glanced over as Voya spoke up, her glowing eyes narrow even though she was keeping her tone somewhat even. "That's the only way you could have found your lead on Xentha so quickly."

Trena swallowed heavily, and I was surprised by the stab of pain in my chest. "You lied to me."

"Yeah."

My fingers briefly curled into fists, then smoothed out as I forced them to relax. "What did you hate most about my being with Nynsi, Trena?" When she didn't say anything, I continued speaking, my voice lowering to cutting levels. "Remember Korlus? When she lied and omitted crap that I needed to know. You were fucking furious with her."

She flinched. "I'm a fucking hypocrite, all right?"

"Not all right." An arm cut across my body in a slashing gesture. "You lied to my fucking face Trena. I wouldn't have been upset if you'd _fucking_ told me you had my will. _Maybe_ the two of us would have figured crap out sooner if you had. And _maybe_ Twelve and his partner would be alive if Voya and I had been on the alert when we ate at his fucking diner."

"Why?" I flicked my eyes over to Voya, the Quarian's own gaze locked on Trena. "The will I _might_ understand if you didn't believe it. But why keep the other information from him?"

"...Aethyta and Ghai convinced me not to." Trena seemed to sag as she forced the words out, not looking anywhere near me. "Almost messaged you... fucking dozens of times Cie. Just couldn't bring myself to push the goddess-damned send button."

"If that's supposed to make me feel better it doesn't." I growled at her. "Because it tells me you _knew_ I should know but you fucking didn't tell me anyway."

A heavier flinch, and she still wouldn't fucking look at me.

"Anything else I should know?"

"Your will is set to go to Aethyta if... the Eden Prime event happens."

My heart fucking stopped as I stared at her. "Wha... _what_!?"

"I didn't think the shit in there was real, but I wanted to be on the safe side." She momentarily met my gaze before flicking her eyes away again. "If the crap T'Ravt put in your head actually starts happening she'd be someone who could help shit."

But...Aethyta was...if she got all of that information...

Sederis was...I didn't want to say predictable, but I thought the damage she could do with the information was limited so long as she wasn't indoctrinated. On the constant verge of psychopathy or not, I was fairly confident that her self-preservation instincts would kick in if the game's events did occur. She, after all, would die with everyone else if the Reapers won. And even if the Eclipse didn't suddenly join Shepard and obey her every command, Sederis would probably at least keep them out of the Spectre's way.

Aethyta, on the other hand... her _daughter_ was going to be in the thick of things, and her ex-wife was one of the major opponents in the first game. The fucking hurricane was going to hit the coast if she got all of that information after Eden Prime.

"Fucking cancel it."

Trena sucked in a long breath and steeled her spine, finally snapping her eyes up to mine and leaving them here. "No. I'm not letting Jona fucking Sederis be the only one who knows shit."

My fingers curled into the arm rests. "So pick someone _not_ emotionally invested. Also preferably someone _unlikely_ to kill us for not having told them sooner."

"If that colony is attacked, I'm fucking giving it to her Cieran."

Shit. I knew that tone of voice, even if it had been a long while since I'd heard it. She wasn't going to fucking budge on this.

Snarling wordlessly, I shoved myself off the couch. "Fine. No, Voya."

Trena's head whipped right just as Voya nonchalantly sheathed a knife onto her belt. "You'd seriously fucking knife me!?"

"No, that's why I just stopped her from trying." Turning on one heel, I stalked towards the door. "But don't expect messages anytime soon."

"Ape, what about Ghai and-"

"Tell your bondmate she isn't getting into my head, and take care of your kid." I knew I was probably too emotional in the moment, from meeting Shepard and than dealing with Voya and then Nynsi and now this... but right then, I just didn't care. Reaching the doorway, I punched it open before pausing and glaring back over my shoulder. "And T'laria? Call me Kean."

She jerked back as if I'd struck her, her mouth working soundlessly as I stormed out, Voya trailing in my wake.

"Contact the local Eclipse commander." I spoke as we moved, my voice tight. "Ask when their next ship heading to Omega departs, and if it can fit my armor and the cargo we're getting from Shaaryak tomorrow."

The Quarian had to break into a light jog to keep up with my long strides, but she nodded before glancing up at me. "Until then?"

"Until then... I have a job offer for Illyan, and a few dozen drinks that need to be downed."

* * *

**Secure Message, Eclipse Private Servers**

_Washana,_

_Apologies, but we aren't going to be on Illium as long as we planned. If you'll be on Omega anytime in the next few weeks I'd be happy to meet and talk with you._

_~ Cieran_

* * *

_**Next up is Operation: Blitzkrieg** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And cracks in the series oldest friendship appear. Cieran not exactly handling things terribly well as the congo-line of problems continues, we'll have to see how things go moving forwards. The next operation will be a series of shorter missions, and we'll see how Cieran takes to combat after the last three chapters. As the Guest reviewer so succinctly put it, he's a bit off his rocker right now.
> 
> Additionally, as a bit of a shameless request, the Tropes page is still out there, and could probably use some attention if anyone is willing. :)
> 
> Additionally, additionally; massive massive thanks to everyone who's reviewed the last couple of chapters. You guys are all awesome. :)
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	13. Operation: Blitzkrieg I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, back to the grind of being a mercenary, with the first big operation really beginning for the team in a series of major attacks. Cieran remains rather unstable, but he and Shyeel seem to be getting closer, so that is something sort-of good for him.
> 
> The next chapter will be a transition bit, covering the trip from this mission to the next, and everyone on board discussing and debating with one another. After that, we'll have a chapter for each of the missions (where Cieran finally gets to break his power armor out again).
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat

_I don't own the Mass Effect._

* * *

**Operation: Blitzkrieg**

_Date: 09-15-2182_

_Location: Eclipse destroyer Final Touch, Outer Meridian System_

* * *

The next several weeks were an exercise in frustration.

Illyan, Erana, and Jarick were all stunned when I announced that Voya and I would be heading back to Omega the next morning, and spent most of the evening trying to figure out just what had happened between me and Trena. Not in the mood to deal with their questions, well intended or not, I had Voya raid the bar while I told Jarick he could enjoy the rest of his vacation and take the planned ship back next week. Then the Quarian and I had locked ourselves in our designated room while I drunk myself into a stupor, entirely forgetting to even offer Illyan a job as a mechanic for us.

Or maybe Voya had purposefully steered me out before I could... honestly I couldn't remember much of the rest of the evening.

A brief meeting with Nynsi didn't improve my mood in the slightest, a situation naturally made worse by my immense hangover. She was entirely too understanding when Trena's name was the only explanation I offered, not even appearing upset when I made it clear that Voya and I were planning on leaving the planet in the afternoon and not intending on returning anytime soon. Which probably meant she was going to be coming to Omega more often in the future, which was just fucking lovely. Still, she had kept things extremely professional during that particular meeting, so that was a tiny bit of hope I could cling to.

The trip back to Omega had been uneventful, thank the goddess. The crew had largely left us to our own devices, meaning we'd quickly gotten to work fixing my exoskeleton's locked right leg. Voya didn't enjoy the process as much as I did, but seemed to tolerate it just to remain nearby. Once it was mobile again, we'd spent the rest of the trip working on our own equipment, breaking out various upgrades that Nynsi had secured in order to improve things.

A more efficient set of heat sink for both of my guns, a new extended barrel for the pistol, and a paired set of stabilizers to cut down on the Watcher's recoil. Nothing ground breaking, mostly just better versions of what I'd already had, but it kept me busy and thus not thinking about what had happened on Illium.

Or what the fuck was going to happen if Eden Prime was attacked by Saren.

Once we were back on Omega, the plan had more or less stayed the same. The Eclipse let us stay in one of their small bases in Doru while we waited for everyone else to come back from leave, and I spent every waking moment either working on my armor or drinking. My companion alternated between helping me, carving the Krogan crests she and Jack had taken into shards that she could put onto strings, and tinkering with her own equipment.

Everyone else had trickled back over the following few weeks. Jack and Marcus both looked like they'd hit the drugs a little too hard in their downtime, although being given a necklace made of Krogan bone-plate had cheered up the former. Thul, Shyeel, and Jarick had been next, all showing up more or less together. Apparently the kid had told them that something had happened, because Thul had started hovering nearby even more so than usual. Nor did my refusal to talk about it seem to dissuade him in the slightest.

My own spirits had been slightly buoyed when Ayle and her cadre returned the following day, particularly when I'd noticed the bite marks that the men were sporting on both sides of their necks. Shyeel and I had wasted no time in openly speculating on just what the pair of them, or even the three of them, had been doing, and had done so graphically enough that Ayle, her face uncharacteristically flushed, had finally snapped and ordered us to stop.

After that we'd been preparing to debate what our next mission should be, apparently we had had options, when an Eclipse major had come rushing in with an emergency contract for us. She and Ayle had had a quick discussion, and then we quickly hauled our things onto one of the group's warships.

"All right Ayle." I glanced around the cargo bay that we were hastily converting into an armory, with everyone but me, her, and Jarick still busy just trying to organize all of our crap. "What the fuck is this about?"

Her lower eyes flicked my way as she grunted, the pair of us exchanging reflexive nods to the left and right as politeness demanded. "One of die Waffe's eezo haulers was infiltrated by a pirate gang and taken over, two jumps after it had left Omega with a full hold."

"Athame's ass... that's how many credits worth of eezo?"

"Enough that he's offering Sederis the desert's own bounty to take it back." Her lips curled at the edges. "Of which we are receiving a substantial cut to assist. Her own commando teams on Omega departed three days ago on a strike and fade run into the eastern Terminus, and the remainder couldn't be relocated in time."

I nodded slowly. "How are we catching them? Sabotage?"

Ayle flicked a pair of eyes to Jarick, who flushed a little at the attention. "Yes sir. Several members of the crew survived long enough to cripple the ship and send a distress call. Their... brief report indicated both a mixed-species pirate group as well as a Blood Pack warband on board."

"That seems excessive for a hauler." Reaching up with a hand, I scratched at my braided beard. "We'll be rather outnumbered."

"Hardly unusual." The Batarian woman twitched a shoulder, "There shouldn't be more than one or two Krogan, and that can be dealt with even without your armor."

My annoyance must have shown because Jarick shrugged apologetically. "I'm sorry sir, the corridors aren't large enough. You could likely use it in the cargo bays, but the chance of damaging the eezo containers..."

"I hear you." Exhaling, I shook my head irritably. "Just see if our next mission can take place on the ground."

Ayle seemed amused by that. "Eager to test out your upgrades in combat?"

"Something like that." Fuck. Three weeks after finding out what Trena was going to do and I was still... fuck. Drinking hadn't been helping in the slightest, and working only kept my mind occupied while I was actually you know, working. And besides, killing things worked to calm Voya down, so maybe a few dozen dead Vorcha would work for me. "What's our plan of attack?"

"Pincer strikes at both ends of the ship. Jarick? Go tell Voya and Ullak to stop bitching at each other, they need to get the new holo-table running. If we're going to brief everyone we'll need the ship's layout."

"Yes ma'am." Swallowing heavily, the young man seemed to steel himself before heading over to where the two were gesticulating furiously as they argued about something.

As soon as he was out of earshot, Ayle's lower eyes flicked in my direction. "Cieran? Care to explain?"

"No." I shifted my head a bit to the left, making sure that she knew I wasn't trying to be disrespectful. I just didn't want to talk about it with her. "It won't affect the missions."

She let out a low rumble. "See that it doesn't. Helping you get your revenge is a side-task as far as the rest of us are concerned."

"It's not related to that." My head shook slightly. "It's... personal shit."

The Commander blinked in sequence, then gave me a slight nod. "Should I be expecting anyone to join us?"

I grimaced. "I'm going to try and get Illyan T'donna back, she can take over dedicated engineering tasks. Strictly non-combat, assuming you approve."

"The tall Asari?" When I nodded, she seemed to mull on that for a long moment before nodding. "She'll have the same smaller cut as Jarick, but I have no major objections."

"Thanks." Glancing over to where the kid had finally gotten Voya and Ullak to stop bickering and start getting the portable holo-table that Nynsi had sold us together, I watched as the three of them worked. "I heard the crew bitching that this was delaying some mission when we were coming on board. We in on that?"

"We are," She seemed to sigh, "I had hoped to discuss our options with you, T'Ravt also had an opening that seemed like a simple headhunting affair."

"From your tone this one won't be as simple."

"No." Her dark lips pressed together briefly. "Sederis is launching simultaneous attacks across five star systems to try and take the pressure off of die Waffe. The contract her people offered as for us to be involved in the first wave, as well as a second that's supposed to follow shortly."

It was my turn to grimace, crossing my arms as I shook my head. "I didn't think we were going to get involved in a full campaign like that."

"We aren't, not for a lack of trying on her part. Nominally our first target is going to be a pirate king who's pledged his services to Zaen." Briefly quieting, she motioned for me to follow her, the pair of us backing away to get some additional space between us and everyone else. Her voice lowered all the same, making me step a bit closer to ensure that I could hear her. "The second is the problem. Ganar Mesh."

I mulled on the name a moment before shaking my head, "That wave isn't reaching the beach. I know Yulaz's son is named Xin, I'm hazy on the rest of the Ganar clan."

"I wouldn't expect you to know him, I didn't until Sederis sent me a dossier on the old Krogan. He is apparently what passes for a one of their biologists, and has been doing... _something_ that drew a lot of credits and resources to his compound before the war." Her naturally low voice dipped further, becoming little more than a growl. "She claims to not know what he's up to, which is likely why she wants us to handle it instead of her own commandos."

Reaching up, I rubbed at my face as I groaned. "Athame's ass. We don't know anything?"

"No, and we likely won't until we reach the target." A hissing breath escaped her teeth. "Would any of your old Intelligence contacts know anything?"

"Doubt it." And I wasn't about to ask Trena or Ghai for anything right now. "My old boss was fired, remember. I knew the locations of a few other cells but no names, and I don't think they had any operations in the northern quadrant."

"Pillars be..." She forced herself to swallow the curse before nodding. "All right. Stay on mission, we focus on this ship, then you and I are going to send a very pointed message to the Mistress of the Eclipse."

I dipped my head in acceptance, not bothering to point out just how little good it would probably do. Given her current attitude, Ayle likely knew that as well, and I'd rather not have her annoyed with me right now. So instead I just kept my mouth shut, shifting behind her and to the left as she stalked back over to where the holographic table was finally setup and flickering to life.

A sharp whistle brought everyone else over, our little company crowding around the small display as Jarick quickly brought up an image of our target.

"All right. This is our target, the eezo hauler SWC-E-29. She is a Hegemony built bulk hauler, four hundred meters long, with an intended crew of forty-two." A single hand indicated the image. "Essentially a floating warehouse with engines attached."

"An eezo hauler?" Jack crossed her tattooed arms, frowning at the image. "What the fuck do we care about one of those things?"

"We care because die Waffe owns it, and is paying Sederis a fortune to recover it." Ayle supplied. "And she in turn is paying us. Four million."

The human woman's jaw dropped, "Four... fucking hell."

"What's the opposition?" Her lover, as usual more focused, leaned forwards, a hand absently stroking his mustache. "And how are we catching it?"

"One blood pack warband, no more than thirty independent pirates hired on to infiltrate the crew." Ayle inclined her head politely to the more on-point question. "The surviving regular crew were able to sabotage the engines before they were killed."

The former bounty hunter accepted that, his brown eyes tracing the image. "We'll be outnumbered, but I can't imagine they'll be able to coordinate well in the interior. Are the holds full?"

"They are, which is good news for us." Accepting the controls from Jarick, she manipulated the image, bringing up a wireframe that ran through the floating ship. "These are the interior walkways and corridors. Our priorities are the bridge and these utility bays in the prow, and the eezo core and engines located here. We'll be dividing by squad. My team will take the bridge, Cieran's the engines. The obvious airlocks are here, and here."

I shook my head slowly as she pointed out them out, "We'll get shredded if we try and go in there."

"Which is why we aren't." A hand indicated the massive cargo bays that occupied the bulk of the ship. "Each bay has full doors to allow cargo to be removed. We transmit the opening codes that die Waffe's people provided, and have the Eclipse nestle the shuttles against them."

Which still left us fighting through narrow corridors, but it was a damned sight better than the airlocks. "Works for me."

"So glad you approve." I snorted at her dry tones, dipping my head a bit. "Everyone into armor, full vacuum sealed. Cieran, go ahead and break your heavy sets out. Jacqueline, expect several warnings along this line, but do try to keep the collateral damage down. We won't be paid if the ship isn't intact at the end of the mission."

Jack snorted, "Where the fucking fun in that?"

"Your cut of four million buys a lot of fun." Shyeel pointed out, her branded skin twisting a bit as she grinned.

"Shit yeah it does. Don't worry, I'll tone down the fucking awesome this time. Just make sure I can cut loose on the next one."

That seemed like a given, so I merely shook my head and stepped away, the little group breaking apart into our two squads. I knew that it annoyed Thul, and to a lesser extent Ayle, that we'd more or less divided into a pair of cliques that honestly didn't mingle much, but personally I didn't really care. Fuck, I barely even spoke with Jarick anymore, though the kid didn't seem to mind. He'd more or less attached himself to Ayle as her assistant and she seemed to appreciate the help. Not that I minded Ayle, or Ullak, or Hesh. But if my options were being around them or Voya, and increasingly Shyeel and Thul, I'd take the latter.

And as far as their psychotic biotic went... after Trena's bombshell news, and meeting Shepard, I had even less desire to spend time around Jack then ever. The fact that she was a highly unstable drug addict who could rip my spine out with her mind didn't help either. Also, she was a terrible card player who got prissy when you caught her cheating. Given that she and Marcus were attached at the hip, I didn't see much of him either.

Again, not that I minded or really cared.

The three other members of my squad joined me, Voya and I breaking open the containers holding our old armor while Thul and Shyeel went through the extra steps to make sure that theirs was sealed up and prepared to deal with hard vacuum.

The ship's captain, or another bridge crewmember, came onto the loudspeakers about halfway through the process. " _All hands, we're hitting the Meridian relay. Set for action stations, mercenaries and marines, prepare for boarding actions."_

"Didn't know there were Eclipse marines on board." Voya muttered as she adjusted the her heavy chest plate, her glowing eyes narrowed in the slits of her helmet. "They coming with us?"

"Probably to defend our entry points." I shrugged a little, checking my left pauldron as I did. Fuck I'd forgotten how bulky this set was. "Or to crew the ship after we take it back."

"Even if they did wish to assist, where would they go?" Thul rumbled, stepping behind me to double-check my seals. "The ship was designed to haul eezo, not to be easy to traverse. Assuming that I was reading the image correctly."

"Fairly sure you were." Resisting the urge to shrug again, I held still until he lightly slapped my shoulder to indicate that I was good. "Right, we want minimal damage to the ship, so no grenades without my say-so. Shyeel, leave the Kishok behind."

"What in Athame's name would I do with that inside of a ship anyway?" The Asari snorted, already pulling a shotgun out of a crate. "This'll do."

"How come I don't get a shotgun?"

"Because you're tiny." Ignoring Voya's glare, I pulled my Executioner out to do a quick check. "Take both pistols. Yes, I know you hate the Acolyte but I don't want to use overloads unless we're desperate."

"Fine."

Shyeel seemed to roll her eyes beneath her helmet, holstering her weapon as she spoke. "Who's the lead when we get on? Thul?"

"He gets it first, we're going to rotate based on shield strength. Remember the ship is going to be open to space so watch your fucking huds. And grab omni-gel patches."

"Already did." Thul assured me. He passed them out so that we all had several, the last thing I fucking wanted was for any of us to be grabbing at ourselves as our air leaked away. "Ready for checks."

The ship finished its multi-lightyear jump while we were running our second and third tests on our armor, and was making its short FTL hop to where the pirates were desperately trying to get their stolen freighter repaired enough to make a run for relay. We spent the last half hour of the ride in the shuttles, making sure that the magnets in our boots were enough to keep us on the floor if anyone on board was smart enough to turn the artificial gravity off.

Honestly the entire thing was making me heartily dislike even the concept of fighting on board a starship, and I made several mental notes about finding ways to convince Ayle to _never_ have us do this again. Even if fucking Krom himself was on a ship I'd be willing to wait him out, there was just so fucking much to consider, fret over, and prepare for. Athame's ass I was already mentally exhausted and we hadn't even docked yet.

The actual process of getting onto the freighter was a strange combination of boring and nerve-wracking, in the way that only being on a shuttle and approaching combat can be. You know exactly how long until you're in the fight, but your stuck in a tiny armored box and can't actually see shit.

" _Thirty seconds to contact. Check hard seals, preparing to vent atmosphere back there."_ The pilot's voice was level but tense, her focus obviously on a dozen different things on the same time.

"We're prepped." I answered back, rolling my shoulders as I exhaled. "Ready for vacuum."

" _Venting."_ My HUD promptly began flashing as the armor's sensors noticed at the atmospheric pressure was lowering rapidly, switching to my on-board air supply automatically. " _You all still alive?"_

A quick glance at the others saw them nodding, so I grunted back. "No issues."

_"Good. Ten seconds, prepping to open the door."_

Exhaling heavily, I pulled my heavy pistol out, the others drawing their own weapons as well. I was turning to Thul to let him go ahead with his usual routine, when Voya surprised me by quietly murmuring over our com-lines.

"Those who walked before us, guide our weapons as we battle those who would prey upon us. _Xentha mashan se'lai_."

All three of us turned to stare at her. Rather than reply, she simply made a show of checking her Acolyte, refusing eye contact entirely.

"Right... thanks Voya" Shaking myself, I turned back to the doorway just as it began to pull back, revealing the massive gray wall that was the freighter's outer hull, our shuttle easily matching the ship's sluggish acceleration. "Ayle, we're in position."

" _As are we. Transmitting codes now... doors opening. Pillars watch over you Cieran."_

"And you." The shuttle bucked slightly as a blast of air escaped the cargo bay, the hatchway sliding sideways to expose containers the size of aircars meticulously organized and locked into towering stacks. "Get us a bit closer if you could."

The pilot feathered the engines, sliding the two ships until there was barely a foot of space between our feet and the cargo bay. I was still very careful not to look down, or sideways, or up, or in any direction but forwards as I made the slight hop over the infinite array of stars. Shyeel and Voya followed quickly, but I didn't miss the muttered prayers that Thul offered as he hesitated before almost indecently hurling himself across.

Shyeel apparently didn't miss that either. "Nervous Thul?"

"Properly cautious." He offered stiffly, accelerating past her as the four of us set off down the thin space between eezo canisters. "As everyone should be in these conditions."

"Really? You ask your Pillars to guide your feet when you're merely _cautious_?"

Thul let out a rumbling noise, but otherwise refused to rise to the bait.

"Come on." I cut her off before she, or worse, Voya, could really start on him. "Tease him later, kill pirates now."

The Vanguard nodded and fell silent, our small squad quickly finding the interior hatchway that would lead to the ship's main run. Splitting into pairs, we took up positions on either side of the doorway before Voya defly manipulated the controls, using the override codes once again to bypass all of the safety procedures that should have been stopping us from doing this.

"Magnetize and brace." She warned, giving us all a second before punching the final button.

We must have gotten to our door faster than Ayle's squad, because air promptly blasted past us in a suddenly audible roar, carrying dust and debris as it was sucked out into open space. The first body wasn't long in coming, quickly followed by several more, trailing blood like disgusting comets as they were hurled into the void. None were struggling or moving at all beyond when they hit something, which likely painted them as the members of the crew not in on the betrayal.

Only one pirate went past, a human woman flailing wildly to try and cling to anything she could. I caught a too close glimpse of her face as she went past, her eyes were pure blood that was already starting to freeze, her once pale skin already shifting coloration. She'd had an oxygen mask and goggles, but hadn't been able to pull them on in time, leaving them dangling uselessly around her neck as she panicked. If she hadn't been desperately trying to scream she probably would have already been dead, instead she lived to be ejected from the ship entirely.

"I should have ended her pain." Thul shook his head, lowering the weapon he'd belatedly raised. "Not even pirates deserve such a fate."

Voya's eyes narrowed, but she stayed silent when I carefully took a few steps as the air torrent became a trickle, then nothing. "Let's move, engines are to our right."

The corridor proved to be dimly lit and very plain, nothing but bare metal with the occasional patch holding utility access points shut. A few had been ripped away, but it looked like most of them had held on. An old ship, but one that had likely been well cared for by Terminus standards.

We set off at a quick pace, traversing about thirty meters of empty hallway before slowing as we neared the open bulkhead leading to the engine spaces. While the woman and Asari fell back to give us room, Thul and I stepped up to the edge, flattening ourselves against the wall. Holding up a hand for him to wait, I sucked in a breath and then jerked my head into the open...

...and immediately yanked it back as a crossfire tried to take it off. "Three, Batarian on your side. Two in armor, third looked slim. Maybe civilian gear."

Nodding, he waited for the fire to cut off as the pirates realized we weren't exposed, then jerked his own helmet out and then back. "Two on yours, civilian patch-suits."

"They near anything that looks important?"

Showing terrific disregard, he leaned out again, shifting back to relative safety as another blizzard of gunfire hammered at his barriers and the wall's edge. "No. Grenade?"

"I have it." Shifting my gun to a one-handed grip, I fired up my omni-tool with the other. A few moments later had the incinerate prepared. A long breath to build up my nerves, and then I was leaning out around the corner, flicking my fingers in a gesture even as accelerated pieces of metal began slapping across my barriers. The tiny orange mine whipped silently outwards, both targets trying to jump back in the moment before it exploded. For a brief moment, there was a tiny, perfect sphere of plasma and fire, and then it was gone, expanding into a wash of heat.

And both of my targets were down, flailing as their cheap suits ruptured from the pressure. I didn't stick around to see what happened next, ducking back into cover before the other idiots still shooting could get past my barriers.

Thul took up the slack from there, blind-firing two long bursts around the corner, enough to make the fire slacken a bit. The moment it did he leaned out just enough to let two of his eyes assist in aiming, his rifle flashing as he fired.

"Civilian down, the others retreated aft." He reported after his fifth burst, staying in an at-ready post as I shifted to do the same on my side. "Which direction?"

"Both lead to engineering..." I thought, if I was remembering the map right. "One for each of the engines. Take Voya on your side, I'll take Shyeel on mine. Each group has an engineer that way."

"Understood." He and the slim Quarian quickly moved up, properly checking the corner before vanishing down the corridor. I watched them go, mostly to avoid looking at what was left of the two men on my side, before Shyeel and I carefully stepped over their remains.

" _Cieran. Report."_ Ayle's voice crackled in my ear as I took a quick survey of the new corridor, finding no visible enemies but three separate doors that would have to be checked. " _Can you confirm the pirates presence?"_

"Four of them are dead, two fled aft. Blood Pack up front?"

" _Confirmed. Most of the Vorcha died when we vented, clearing out what's left of them and preparing to secure the bridge."_ There was a long pause, probably as she shot at something. " _Only six pirates so far, most of them may be back there so stay on alert."_

I nodded, carefully approaching the first hatch while Shyeel covered me. "Will do. Cieran out."

The door slid open to reveal nothing more dangerous than cleaning supplies, but it was at least a good place to use for cover. Half-moving into the room, I motioned for the Asari to check the next one while I settled into a shooter's stance to cover her.

Tapping the controls, she let out a startled oath before yanking the trigger on her weapon, the shotgun bucking in her hands as she pulled back. Before I could ask the obvious questions, she risked a glance back in before relaxing. "Batarian, dead now. I don't think he was armed."

"Bought member of the crew probably." I mused as she took up her own position in the now open room, covering me as I moved up to the last side-door. Keeping my gun ready with one hand, I gently tapped the button with my other before yanking it back to support the heavy cannon.

The metal had barely shifted open before I was grateful for doing so, a figure inside rushing towards me even as I yanked the trigger. She, I could more clearly see the Batarian woman behind the open face-plate after she staggered back, dropped the wrench she'd grabbed as a makeshift weapon to clutch desperately at her wounds. Shifting my aim, I put a second round directly through her heart before she could even feel the effects of decompression.

"Thul, sitrep?"

" _I was just about to update you."_ He sounded rather breathless, which made me grimace. " _We eliminated the two men who fled along with a human crew-member. We've reached the main engine room but cannot advance inside, they have a heavy crossfire established."_

"We're moving up, hold tight and keep them occupied."

He chuckled deeply. " _Simple enough, but do hurry."_

Grunting, I waved for Shyeel to follow, the two of us getting into motion again. A brief glance around the hall's end revealed a short, L-shaped corridor that we quickly moved through, finding nothing but old bloodstains on the floor. After that was a larger opening, helpfully labeled 'Engineering' in three different languages above the hatchway. It was conspicuously lacking in the steady blue glow of an active eezo core, but very much had the flashing lights of tracer rounds and gunfire.

Staying on the left, or port side I guess, we scuttled along the wall to try and remain as hidden as possible until I risked peeking around the corner, pulling back after a few moments of examination.

"Seven or eight of them, all in scavenged armor. Three on our floor, the rest are on catwalks over the core."

"Athame's tits. Suddenly wish I had my Kishok."

"Agreed." Biting my lip, I mulled it over for a long moment. "How strong is your biotic charge?"

"Reasonably. Why?"

I jerked my chin upwards. "Grab me and haul me up there with you, we take out the group on the catwalk then catch the lower unit in a crossfire with Thul and Voya."

She rocked back in shock. "That's... not exactly a sane maneuver Cie."

"An Eclipse captain I knew did it with me on Korlus."

"She must have been fucking desperate then, it would be like trying to do pull ups while a Krogan hangs on your back and is fuck-"

"By the goddess just shut up and do it."

There was the heavy sound of her swallowing, then her chin shifted into a tiny nod. Holding up a hand, I did a quick countdown while she visibly focused herself, and then we were moving.

I took two long steps, felt her wrap an arm around my waist, and then the universe _twisted_ around us. Shit blurred forwards, then seemingly backwards, all the while my brain was sure that we hadn't moved at all. The rest of my internal organs were equally as insistent that they be let out of my body right _now_ because something was fucking wrong with it. And then I was bounced off of a wall, which did not improve how I felt in the slightest, staggering backwards as I found myself at the top of the stairs I'd barely even glimpsed. Behind and still clinging to me, Shyeel let out a pained whimper as she almost collapsed against my back.

Fortunately the human male not more than a meter away was too stunned by our appearance to do more than jump backwards, bobbling his rifle as he did so.

That gave me enough time to recover my wits and shove my gun into his face, double-tapping him before he could bring it around. Lacking any other cover up here, I lunged forwards to grab his body, keeping the bleeding mass against me as Shyeel finally let go, sounding as if it was taking everything she had not to vomit.

My macabre bullet shield in place, I snapped my gun up and sighted on the next person in line, another human who was able to get his pistol around fast enough that we fired at more or less the same time. His deceased friend's barriers and armor held for the first few shots, more blood misting into floating globs when they failed, but that was more than enough time for me to put my own much heavier rounds through his chest.

Dropping the bullet riddled corpse, I shifted back to a proper grip as the final two pirates finally noticed that they'd been flanked. The human and Batarian men both tried to backpedal and get their carbines around, but they'd apparently just been taking their turn keeping Thul and Voya from breaking out of cover. One managed a single burst before her weapon locked up, the other only two, all of which were easily held back by my upgraded barriers, leaving me striding towards them without any real worries.

They, quite sensibly in my opinion, promptly threw their guns away and thrust their hands into the air.

I paused for a long moment, contemplated my options, observed the faded logo on his armor... and then put a bullet through the human's head. Before I could do the same to the Batarian, a shotgun blast whipped past me, turning his own head into a disgusting mess flying through the air, Shyeel groaning across the comms as she finally shuffled up next to me.

"Never." A long gasp preceded the next word. "Fucking. Again."

"I'll buy you a high priced escort next time we're on Omega."

"One of... Afterlife's... girls..."

Snorting, I left her to further recover while leaning over the railing, doing so just in time to see the last survivor dropping to his knees as Voya held him at gun point.

"It seemed safe enough to make a move once you did." Thul called, waving a hand as he checked the other two bodies. "Is Shyeel all right?"

"Nothing water and sex probably can't cure." I shrugged, "Good work down there. Voya, deal with your friend, then let's move forwards."

The Quarian seemed taken aback glancing up to blink at me. "Cieran?"

"They've done work for the Circle, at least these ones up here did, they've got the marking we saw on Carastes." I waved a hand towards the Batarian, who was keeping his hands up and likely hoping that one of us would speak to him on an open frequency. "So deal with him."

She blinked again, then her eyes curled in a hidden grin. Collapsing her gun, she drew her knives with a slight flourish, taking the moment to kick the man's weapon away even as his hands started to lower.

"Ayle, we're done back here." I reported, only half-watching as Voya amused herself. Thul was studiously not paying attention, focusing instead on helping a still cursing Shyeel get herself upright. "You?"

" _The bridge is clear, just removing the last stragglers that were hiding in the crew quarters now. Head to the forward airlock, the_ Touch _is preparing to dock there."_ She paused. " _No wounded or casualties. Yourself?"_

"Shyeel's biotically exhausted, my fault, but seems all right. Everyone else if fine, we'll meet you up there."

" _Good, we'll meet you here then."_

"Understood." Signing off, I gave a slight glance to the bloody mess at Voya's feet before shaking my head. "Let's go, but keep your weapons out in case we missed someone."

"Cieran..." Thul's voice was subdued, even as my HUD showed that he'd opened a private channel with me. "... you should not encourage her."

"He was a slaver."

"You don't know that, and even if he was, only death is required. Not pain."

I twitched a shoulder. "We'll discuss this on the ship."

"Yes... I do believe that we will."

* * *

_**Citadel Morning View** _

_In sadder news, Emily Wong, celebrated reporter from FCC News and the ANN has taken a leave of absence. Ostensibly due to overwork, our own sources seem to indicate it is a result of her ongoing disagreements concerning the coverage of the current difficulties in the Terminus_

_Miss Wong has been extremely outspoken that the war between Aria T'loak and Ganar Yulaz should receive far more attention, releasing several highly touted articles that covered the potential fallout should either succeed in seizing full control of the sprawling Terminus._

_While Emily is unable to join us, we will still conduct the interviews she tirelessly arranged for us. After the break, General Septimus Oraka of the Turian Hierarchy, who will break down the potential problems that could arise fo the Citadel Council if either T'loak or Ganar win a dominating victory._

* * *

_**Next up is Operation: Blitzkrieg II** _

 


	14. Operation: Blitzkrieg II

_I don't own the Mass Effect._

* * *

**Operation: Blitzkrieg II**

_Date: 09-18-2182_

_Location: Eclipse destroyer Final Touch, en route to Starkhaven_

* * *

Thul elected to take his time before bringing up what had happened to the last pirate on the freighter. I found that to be slightly odd, I'd expected an immediate confrontation, and I grew mildly irritated as several days ticked by without the moral debate I'd expected. His chosen moment eventually came during one of our daily card games, while the four of us were lounging in the communal cabin our squad been assigned on this particular ship.

"Cieran." The former priest rumbled as he shuffled our deck, careful to keep one set of eyes on the cards while the other pair glanced at me. "I assume this is as good a time as any to speak openly?"

Sighing, I took a slow pull from my beer, the bitter Asari alcohol gently burning at my throat. "Why not? You've waited three days."

Voya groaned, a long-fingered hand raising to rub at her bare face before she glared at the Batarian. "I don't suppose Shyeel and I can go do something else?"

"No." I snorted. "If I have to suffer so do both of you."

"I hate you. You know that right?"

"I don't." Shyeel offered, her voice amused as she took a sip from her own drink. "Besides, I already have had to suffer through this big idiot lecturing me. About time you fully had to as well."

Shaking my head, I accepted the cards as they were dealt, not bothering to glance at them just yet. "Let's just get this over with."

Thul seemed to sigh at my choice of words. "Cieran, you know that I hold no appreciation for groups such as the Circle. I have no qualms with the fact that yourself and Voya will kill such men and women where and when you can."

"Good, then we're in agreement that there isn't anything to discuss." The Quarian quipped, glancing down at her cards before pushing three of them to the middle.

"Death is one thing, torture is another." Seemingly on autopilot, he deftly replaced her cards, doing the same for two of mine and four of Shyeel's. "You made sure that man suffered before he departed this realm, and you did so on nothing more than a whim and vague suspicions."

"Compared to what I went through, that was barely foreplay." She growled, shaking her head to make her hard, bristly hair rustle aggressively. "I didn't think your people cared about that kind of thing."

He dipped his head politely to show he meant no insult to her with his words. "If you were attempting to extract information from him, or using his agony to instill terror in his comrades to ensure that they provided you with something you required, I would be more accepting. However, my first point remains. You knew nothing about him."

"His armor had the mark of the Circle on it." I reminded him. "Therefore he was a slaver, the group doesn't get up to much else."

"The armor did," Thul agreed, "However that does not mean the man himself had ever been on a slaving raid. Perhaps he was merely a janitor or guard, given his first combat assignment. Neither yourself nor she bothered to ask."

A muscle in Voya's cheek twitched, "So you're pissed because we didn't ask if he had ever been on a raid before?

"I am not 'pissed', I am justifiably concerned about my friend's mental well being. Is it so much to ask that you know who a being is and what they've done before you deal them such pain?" I winced when all of his eyes lowered. "Such actions should be delivered as a means to an end, beyond the emotional gratification of the one inflicting it. Otherwise we are no better than those recruited into groups such as the SIU."

I found myself again wincing at the comparison, while Voya shifted uncomfortably to my left. "Thul..."

He seemed to shake himself, his voice quickly returning to its normally solemn timber. "Apologies, I did not mean to cast either of you into the same shadows as those psychopaths. In either case, I am less concerned about _what_ you did than I am with the _why_."

The Quarian and I shared a slight glance before she cautiously repeated herself. "He was a slaver. Didn't we just go over that?"

"I understand why you enjoyed his agony, though I do wish that you would not indulge in such desires." His lower eyes flicked to me. "Cieran's motives are those I am more concerned with."

I pressed my lips together, buying time by glancing down at the cards in my hand. Three Justicars and a War Priestess gave me a very strong cabal, even if my other two cards did nothing for me. Fingering my credit chits, I pushed a few into the center of the table before speaking. "In all probability, he was a slaver. I didn't see any harm in letting her give him some of the pain he inflicted on others before he died."

"Solemn words." Thul dipped his head politely. "But I hardly believe that you considered such things in that moment."

He was right, I hadn't. Not even slightly. "I suppose I just didn't care and thought she could use some release."

"Say it like it is Cie." Shyeel spoke up, her voice low. "It's been a while since she cut someone to shreds."

There was a low growl from the woman in question. "You don't have to say it like that."

The Asari glanced at her. "Sorry, I just don't see the point in dancing around crap. If I wanted to hear pretty euphemisms I'd have stayed on Thessia. And raise fifty."

Voya nodded slightly, accepting that before tossing her cards forwards. "Fold."

"Call." Drumming my fingers slowly, I exhaled through my nose. "What do you want from me Thul?"

"To understand you, and preferably to assist you in understanding yourself."

I was a no one who'd had his mind torn apart and put back together, who'd lost the person he'd cared most about right in front of him, and likely someone whose mentally stability was rapidly declining. "I understand myself just fine Thul."

He spread his hands apart. "Then why did you tell Voya to torture a man to death?"

"I just told you that I didn't care."

"Not caring implies that you would have been indifferent had she elected to cut him of her own volition." The larger man corrected me gently, his head dipped slightly to the left. "You all but _ordered_ her to do so. That is not indifference."

"He told me to deal with him." Voya cut in. "That's not ordering me to do anything besides kill him."

"Voya." Shyeel groaned, bringing her hands up to rub her face. "I get that you want to defend him, but don't be stupid about this. We all knew what he meant and so did you. Athame's ass you acted like he'd just given you a present."

The Quarian's skin darkened, but she tellingly didn't deny it.

Glancing at the branded woman, I dipped my head slightly. "What's your opinion on this?"

She shrugged, one shoulder rising as her head shifted that way. "I honestly don't care much. So you're a bit fucked up in the head, that's practically everyone who chooses to live in the goddess-damned Terminus. You haven't done anything that makes me worried you'll suddenly snap and get me killed."

I stared at her for a moment before snorting. "If you're trying to be reassuring you're failing." Another shrug was accompanied by a long pull from her drink. "What about you Thul? Worried I'm going to get the four of us killed doing something stupid?"

"No." He spoke slowly, leaning back as it became clear to everyone that we weren't going to be finishing the card game anytime soon. "Your issues are not with your cunning or intelligence, nor your sense of self-preservation."

"That's good to hear." I drily replied, a small grin tugging at my lips. "So you're just worried that I'm going to start ordering you to torture slavers to death?"

"I don't think you are quite so far gone." The assurance was ruined when he added on, "Not yet, anyway. And you do seem to be more aware of your own mind than I feared you were."

Resisting the urge to groan, I rubbed at my eyes with a hand. "Athame's azure... why the fuck are you so aggravating? Aren't you supposed to have hard and fast religious rules that we can call idiotic and then move on?"

"Apologies." Thul chuckled. "But my faith is one of guidance and prudence, truths and answers are left for us to discover on our own."

"So... what? You want to guide Cie and I somewhere?" Voya glanced at me, her face pulled into a frown. "Because I'm not looking for a new religion."

The chuckle turned into a bark of laughter, some of the malaise fading from the table. "No, of course not. I simply want to assist you both as best I can."

My lips twitched a little. "Whether or not we want you to?"

"In my experience those who need guidance very rarely seek it out, or listen unless repeatedly annoyed."

I couldn't help but snort. "If I agree to not give anyone to Voya like that again, unless they really deserve it, will you _not_ annoy us?"

He seemed to muse on that before a small grin appeared on his own face. "For a month."

Voya let her throat vibrate in a low growl. "Thul."

"Six weeks."

"Thul."

Massive arms crossed his chest. "Six weeks Voya."

She let out an annoyed sniff, turning her tiny nose up at him. "I reserve the right to hit you once those six weeks are up."

"That's hardly something you need to say." Shyeel snorted. "You fucking try and hit all of us on a daily basis with less excuses than Thul annoying you."

There was another low growl that shifted direction when I reached up to flick her temple. "Stop that, you sound like a bloody Vorcha. Anyone care to finish the game?"

Shyeel and Thul both nodded, while Voya batted my hand away, her expression promising pain later. With that discussion out of the way, the four of us played several more hands, alternating winners as our Batarian dealer flicked his extra set of eyes around the table whenever he dealt the cards to make sure that none of us were cheating. Which was rather annoying really, I vastly preferred playing with a fixed deck.

I wasn't, and probably never be, as good at cheating as Rane had been, but she'd taught me rather well all the same.

The memories slowed my down some, my bets growing less aggressive as my drinking increased. It didn't take the others long to notice, Voya in particular giving me a long look before silently departing the table, returning a few moments later with my pipe and a bag of chehala leaves.

While I cleaned and then ignited it, Shyeel gave me a long look. "Seriously Cie. I'm already four drinks in, you really want me _that_ drunk?"

"You could always borrow one of Voya's masks." I grunted back, taking a slow pull, the vanilla taste and scent filling my mouth and nose before I let the smoke billow out. "Besides, it isn't like we're doing anything today or arriving tomorrow."

She grunted. "I'm more worried about waking up in someone else's bunk."

"So you're _that_ kind of drunk."

The skin around her brand and scars darkened. "Not like I'd be in _your_ bed Cieran."

Shifting my pipe around, I couldn't help but be amused. "So Voya should be on alert all night then?"

Said woman's back snapped rigidly straight as her eyes widened. "What."

Waving the smoldering object around, I worked through my thoughts aloud. "She's never made any comments about Thul, and I have the obvious detriment of facial hair."

"And a distinct lack of tits." Shyeel added, though she at least refrained from looking at Voya's. "Everyone has their favorite, that happens to be mine."

"...what." Voya repeated blankly.

"Shy thinks you've got great tits." I spelled it out for her before taking another long puff. "And you know she's being honest because she's drunk right now, and that's not something she'd ever admit sober."

It was the Asari's turn to growl, a hint of dark light flickering around her shoulders as her biotics unconsciously responded to her rising irritation. "Cieran."

"What? I'm not saying you're _shy._ Just saying that Voya carries knives."

She flicked her glare to Thul. "Would you care if I hit him? Maybe bounced him off of the floor a few times?"

"Regrettably he is our commanding officer, even if he is currently being a bit of an asshole."

"In my defense I am intoxicated." I tried to shift to he formal lilts I only spoke to T'Ravt in, but from Thul's suppressed chuckle I didn't quite make it.

"Not as drunk as Shyeel is." The Batarian replied, a hand absently reaching out to remove the Asari's current beer before she could try to finish it. "And given the turn of our conversation, I believe it would be best if we all went to sleep."

"Because we're talking about sex?"

He sighed, lower eyes flicking at me. "Not everyone is as casual about it as yourself and Asari are."

I twitched a shoulder. "Blame Illium."

Shyeel groaned, shoving cards, chips, and empty bottles across the table with her forearms before her head came to rest on cool surface. "Illium... I should have gone to Illium. Great clubs there."

"I'm already buying you one of Aria's whores for a night." I reminded her.

"Oh yeah... when?"

"Whenever we get-"

"I'm not having sex with her!" We all glanced at Voya, the Quarian's skin darkening from purple closer to black as she flushed. "What?"

Thul sounded like he was strangling laughter as he tried to break it to her. "That conversation ended several minutes ago my dear."

"I... it did?" When he nodded solemnly, or as solemnly as someone could while grinning that widely, her skin seemed to shift further. "Cieran, I don't know how, but this is your fault. Just so we're clear."

"It's always my fault according to you." I groaned, letting my head loll backwards. "Go to sleep Voya. Light duties only tomorrow."

Still grumbling, she shook her head to let the hair rustle before shoving herself to her feet. A little unsteady, she made sure to give Shyeel a very wide berth before crawling into the alcove of her bunk and yanking the privacy screen down. Thul motioned for me to stay seated, handling the cleanup while I smoked and the Asari remained face-down.

"Shy." Reaching out, I nudged her elbow. "Wake up."

There might have been a low groan before she spoke. "I can sleep here."

"No you can't." I started to push myself to my feet, then settled back down when I realized that the ship wasn't remaining level beneath my feet. "Or maybe you can."

It took me several tries, and far too much concentration, to extinguish my pipe. By the time I'd managed to do so, Thul had already separated everyone's money and gotten rid of the bottles. Without a word he gently hauled the Asari up, ignoring her moan of displeasure before helping her over to her own bed. Waving off his assistance, I managed to stumble to mine, collapsing fully clothed with a long groan, passing out almost at once.

Morning, and a meeting with Ayle, came far too soon. Throwing on a new shirt and pants, I left my hair unbraided and tangled, and skipped shoes entirely as I forced my hands through the process of making tea. Clutching the elixer in a solid two handed grip, I shuffled down the various hallways, nodding at the few members of the crew that I saw. Most looked entirely too amused at my pained expression.

Shuffling barefooted into our cargo bay, some of my irritation lessened at seeing her looking nearly as tired and out of it as I was.

"Cieran." She seemed to perk up at seeing me, a too pleased sound following my name. "I approve of the new look."

I glared at her over my cup, the fragrant liquid nearly burning my tongue. "Ayle. It's too early for that. And don't you have Hesh and Ullak for that kind of thing?"

My commander sighed, her lower eyes shifting to the portable holo-table she already had up and running. "They prefer one another, I rarely intrude. And yes, I know you aren't interested in me, but I can still appreciate the view, can I not?"

"First Shyeel hitting on Voya, now you..." Sighing, I managed to pad over to a chair on the other side of the holograhic display, collapsing into it with a groan. "Athame save me from females of every species."

"Shyeel hit on... Pillars, tell me everyone on your squad is still alive?"

"They are." I waved my already half-empty cup to the side dismissively. "She was too stunned to really process it. There was also drinking involved."

"I assumed as much from your appearance." Leaning back in her chair, she reached out to fiddle with the display, eventually bringing up a long list of information. "We have a few things to discuss, then you may return to sleep."

"You're joking. Voya and Shyeel are both going to be awake by the time I get back." Leaning forwards, I let my eyes flick over what she'd brought up. "Thul can only hold one of them back at a time."

"Fair. Finances first."

They were, by and large, solid. We had a multi-million credit war chest, built up from those of us smart enough to give the unit most of our pay. Jack and Marcus were the natural exceptions, both of them took their full cuts after every mission. Shyeel also kept more than the rest of us, but at least gave most of it to Ayle for the group as a whole to utilize. I was the only oddball who didn't take any for myself, but so long as Ayle let me pay for my armor's repairs out of the unit account I didn't really need more money.

While not a fortune by mercenary standards, there was enough to cover us if we suddenly had to pay for our own transits. Or to cover buying everyone full armor sets with new weapons in case something happened, or doing the same for new hires.

The last reminded me of a question I needed to ask her. "You hear anything from the other Reyja'krem?"

"Yes." She dipped her head. "Three have agreed to sign on with us as soon as their current contracts end. Callada Weshan is an Asari who should be able to join us in four months, she's currently playing bodyguard to an independent governor in the Traverse. Apparently it's too easy of a paycheck for her to wish to depart at the moment."

I grunted. "Can't blame her for that. Combat skills?"

"She's a Matron in her fifth century, and was a former huntress in the Republic's military." Her fingers shifted, tapping a few commands to close our bank account and bring up an image of an Asari along with a heavyset human, a cigar visible in his massive beard. "The male is Dietrich Smith, a freelancer she has been operating with for nearly a year. He is a former N5 demolitions specialist who decided the mercenary life paid better."

I found myself nodding slowly, tipping back the last of my tea. "We could use an explosives expert. Are you going to shuffle the teams or stick them onto a new squad with the other two?"

"Both. I would like to give Thul the new squad, leaving you Smith in exchange." Ayle gave me an apologetic lilt of her head. "You'll have a few months to get used to the idea."

"I'll need them." Setting the empty cup aside, I reached up to rub at my face. "All right. Who's the other two? That Batarian guy, Thunaar? And his cadre?"

"Yakshi ul Thunaar is dead, SIU team caught up with him last week." She pressed her lips together. "His cadre were taken to Khar'shan and executed by his former Tarath'shan."

Well... shit. It was too easy to forget that those assholes were after us, with everything else that we had to worry about right now. "Athame's... dammit. Who else have they gotten?"

"Ul Hakaar, Ul Shien, Grothat Jakuun..." The Batarian woman's head shook slowly. "The list grows Cie. Nearly a dozen Reyja'krem who still breathe have fled to the Citadel, taking refuge in the lower wards. I have tried to contact most of them, but the replies were nearly universal in tone. They don't believe that we will succeed."

"Or survive."

"Or survive." She agreed. "Aside from Weshan, only the Turians have agreed. Feras and Idas Kethen, a mated pair currently on Xentha. They won't admit to what they are doing, but I don't particularly care. Four months as well until they can depart, five at the outside."

Nodding tiredly, I didn't bother asking about their skills. Just by being Turians they'd have military experience, the particulars didn't really matter. Especially if they weren't going to be in my squad anyways. That would be for Thul to evaluate and work with.

"So four more combat personnel.. but not for four to five months. That's a long damned time Ayle."

"I'm aware, but what else can we do? Bringing in any of my people runs the risk that they are SIU plants infiltrating us, and nearly everyone else could still expect to be set for life for betraying us to the same." Her upper eyes shifted to meet mine. "I don't suppose you know anyone who you'd consider trustworthy enough to join us?"

Trena would have been my first option... but not any longer. My head shook. "No one that isn't already pledged to another group, the Eclipse doesn't let it's people walk to other units. I do know a pair of Talon lieutenants, but I don't think I could convince them to leave."

She grunted, not sounding particularly surprised. "It was worth asking. Most of my contacts are employed by T'Ravt already, so we are in a similar situation. What about Shaaryak?"

I blinked. "What about her?"

"Does she not have security forces? Anyone that we could lure away?"

"They suffered more than fifty percent casualties twice within a calender year. Blue Suns then the fighting on Korlus." My head shook slightly. "I can't imagine her letting them leave Illium unless the situation was desperate. Speaking of her though, did we get any news before we hit FTL?"

There was a polite nod from my companion. "She has hired an Asari editor who is working on several articles covering our last several missions, based on the reports that I sent her. Ideally the first will be finished before we return to Omega."

Thus hopefully starting the long process of making our unit impressive enough to catch Aria's attention without having to rely on T'Ravt or Sederis. And the sooner that happened, the sooner we could shift our focus more heavily to hunting for Krom. Athame' ass, if we were really lucky we'd managed to pull of something impressive enough to get her to declare that the contract for Krom was exclusive to us.

Ayle and a I had a few ideas on that, but both of the targets who could really make us known weren't the kind of people we could just stumble over or snipe out in a random fight. In either case, that was an island too far out to sea to even observe right now, we had more immediate concerns. Like what would be waiting for us on Starkhaven.

Thankfully that briefing would wait for tomorrow. Taking pity on me, she let me go after another hour of debating if we should focus more heavily on either of our current employers. She seemed rather surprised that I was all for working more heavily for T'Ravt, even at the expense of having less to do with the Eclipse. When I admitted that my reasons were largely personal, the more we worked with the Eclipse the more likely it was that Sederis might try and force me to talk with Trena or Ghai, she'd nodded slightly and agreed to consider it.

Once we were done, I'd tiredly headed back to my team's cabin. Finding Shyeel nursing her own tea, and studiously not looking at Voya while the Quarian tinkered with her omni-tool.

"Good job not killing each other." I groaned as I lowered myself into my messed up bed, the soft padding of the Asari mattress calling me to worship it. "Keep it up."

The Asari merely groaned and hunched over her drink. "Cieran. Quieter."

Snorting, I buried my face in my pillow and waved a hand vaguely. "Sure. Wake me up if we're all about to die."

Voya snorted. "Lazy human."

I tiredly rose a hand to give her a rude gesture, ruining it with a yawn. Not bothering to wait for a reply, I reached up and yanked the privacy screen down, leaving me in comforting darkness.

* * *

**Secure Message, Eclipse Private Servers**

_Cieran,_

_The T'donna sisters told me that you and T'laria had a falling out, though they didn't know the details. I won't pry sir, but if you want to get drinks on Omega the next time we're both there I would be glad to buy. The Eclipse has it's own room in Afterlife's VIP section, so we'd be able to avoid most of the crowds._

_Assuming you want to of course._

_Back to what you asked, my unit was just rotated back to Illium for a short bit of leave while they tune up our transports. We only just arrived, so I would have missed you even if you hadn't left early. Apparently the next operation is a big one, but nobody is telling us much of anything. There's all kinds of rumors though. The loudest words in the ocean breeze are that Mistress Sederis and Lady T'Ravt are arguing over who should attack Redcliffe to cripple Warlord Zaen._

_Goddess... I won't lie sir, I rather hope we leave that to the Warlord. I'd rather not be involved in that level of a campaign._

_One more thing... Mistress Sederis herself pulled me aside today, saying she might have a 'personal assignment' in the near future involving you and Miss T'laria. Do you know what that might be about? And how do you talk with her so easily!? Goddess, she's so intimidating in person I thought I was going to faint. Is there a trick you could show me? Not that I'm hoping to speak with her personally again anytime soon. That's attention I'd rather not have..._

_~ Washana_

* * *

_**Next up is Operation: Blitzkrieg III** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so Thul has said his piece, everyone else imbibed slightly too much, and Cieran and Ayle discussed possible new recruits. The next chapter will cover the next blitz mission, seeing the group going after a minor pirate king who has sworn himself to the Blood Pack's side in the war. After that we'll see them taking on a krogan bio-scientist, followed by the story's first major time skip (around two-to-three months) before the next interlude.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	15. Operation: Blitzkrieg III

_I don't own the Mass Effect._

* * *

**Operation: Blitzkrieg III**

_Date: 09-23-2182_

_Location: Starkhaven, Hessiana System, Northern Terminus_

* * *

**Omega Bounty Board – Kasan ul Besheren**

_Batarian; Independent Pirate King; Age 51; Non-Biotic_

_Desc: One of the more than seventy minor 'Pirate Kings' who roam the Terminus, Kasan ul Besheren is largely an unremarkable member of the breed. Like most he is a Batarian midcaste exile, who spent most of his early years slowly growing and accumulating his power base. His only notable asset is the control of a mid-sized colony on the world of Starkhaven._

_Bounty: 750,000 (Eclipse)_

* * *

"Jarick, give us a sitrep." Ayle's voice crackled from the speakers behind my head, her own armored body holding tightly to her harness as the shuttle bucked in the planet's turbulent atmosphere. "Can we still expect a hot landing zone?"

" _Yes ma'am."_ The kid's voice had the harried tones he only used when he was trying to keep track of half a dozen things at the same time. " _The pirates have pushed the Eclipse nearly back into their primary beachheads. It's clogging up their deployment significantly."_

"Any word on how in the Pillars names they've managed to do that?"

" _No ma'am, none of the reports have them any better equipped than a normal unit."_ There was a short pause. " _Correction, a report from one of the frontline units just came in. Their equipment is apparently bad but their tactics are not. They lured two separate platoons into fire-traps and all but annihilated them, and followed that ambush with some kind of flanking attack."_

I grunted quietly into my mic "Sounds like Asari tactics. Zaen might have loaned them one of his granddaughters, or maybe Besheren hired an old huntress."

"Possible." Ayle allowed, her fingers flexing for a moment before re-gripping the straps around her chest. "This mission will be more complicated than I hoped either way. Jarick, forward any additional reports to me, I'll evaluate them after the initial engagement. Is the spaceport's situation the same as when we departed?"

By which she meant, was it besieged with the Eclipse increasingly becoming bottled up as they tried to land more troops to force a new breakout. Last we'd heard an entire company was being diverted to the outskirts opposite of where we were landing to fight their way into the city that way, which might relieve some of the pressure on their comrades. Of course that assumed that Besheren only had enough troops to isolate the spaceport, and underestimating him didn't seem to be the best idea right now.

We'd, back when Ayle and I had written up the plan, had assumed that the Eclipse would have established control over at least a third of the city. Since they hadn't even come close to that, what we'd hoped to be a quick strike to seize a security station was looking like it would be a much longer slog.

" _Yes ma'am."_

"Good." She let out a long, hissing breath as her helmet flicked around the shuttle. Her squad was seated to either side of her, while mine rode in the seats directly across from them. I loomed over both groups in the dead center, one of my massive paws holding onto a bar set into the shuttle's ceiling. "The plan remains the same. We set down just outside of the city limits and advance inwards as a combined unit. Cieran, Jacqueline, you're leading."

"About fucking time." The biotic growled from her own chair. "I can cut loose right?"

"I would prefer it if you avoided killing any of the Eclipse," Ayle's voice turned dry, "Beyond that, you may... indulge yourself."

The resulting cackle made me shake my head. "About fuckin' time. Try and keep up Kean."

"If you outpace me and get blown up, entirely your own goddess-damned fault." I countered, my suit leaning to one side as the eezo core shifted my mass to compensate for a sudden bank by the shuttle. "I'll cover her right side. Thul on the left?"

"Acceptable." Her helmet shifted slightly as she glanced at everyone else. "The remainder of squad one will follow you directly. Shyeel, Voya, you're the initial rear-guard."

The Quarian grumbled something under her breath, while the Asari simply nodded before speaking. "So long as we rotate out at some point."

"Our formation will likely shift after we reach our first objective." She exhaled tightly through her teeth. "Remember, as soon as Besheren realizes that we are here to kill him our lives will become exceedingly difficult. Speed is our ally today. Cieran, time to the ground?"

I glanced at one of the displays on my HUD. "Minute thirty."

"Thul?"

He, along with the other three Batarians, shifted their hands enough to make the symbolic gesture as his deep voice rumbled across our private frequency. "This day, we must remember that the Pillar of Power speaks of how even an inferior force, through bold action, might overcome numbers that seem insurmountable. May those warrior paragons lifted by that Pillar approve of our actions this day."

The four of them nodded solemnly, while I found myself doing the same inside of my armor. The motion brought the numbers back into view again, making me grunt quietly as I shifted frequencies. "Pilot, our landing zone clear?"

" _Nothing but swirling snow."_ She cheerfully called back. " _I'd have warned you if it wasn't. Opening the bay doors, get off when we're low enough for you."_

Her voice had barely finished before the warning claxons sounded, the heavy side-doors sliding up and then away as air suddenly began to blast into the cabin. The swirl of snow made me nostalgic for a brief moment for I forcibly reminded myself that I had no idea if those memories were even real or not, and in either case I wasn't here to admire the blizzard conditions.

Shifting a bit, I got my first good look at Starkhaven's only major city as Rane's VI cycled vision modes and filters until I had a clear enough picture. We were still a good hundred meters up, and descending calmly as the pilot drifted closer to the buildings to give us some cover when we departed, and that gave me plenty of time.

"Streets look deserted." I reported after a moment, "But the power is still running. Enough lights are going that the weather won't be an issue at short range, but we can forget about sniping him out."

There was a startled pause before Ayle spoke, "The weather is that bad?"

"Yeah. It's a blizzard Ayle, My cameras can compensate, the rest of you... not so much. Voya's the only one with a thermal scope on her weapon, something else to fix for next time."

"Yes." She grunted irritably. "At least it will make it more difficult on them than on us. Can you see the starport?"

"Yeah." Tracers and flashes of red and orange made its location perfectly clear. "Two, maybe three kilometers south of us. I think I can make out the security station, assuming it looks like a barracks with a guard tower attached."

"Likely, we should be just to the northeast of it."

A quick glance at my compass made me grunt. "That's it then. Five... no, six blocks that way."

"Lock in the location." While I did that, she quickly pushed her harness up and off of her, standing easily even as the shuttle shifted around her. "Everyone up, prepare to disembark."

"What is this.. _sakand_ crap?" Voya muttered as she rose, waving a hand to bat aside a few snowflakes as if they were dangerous.

"It's called snow." I couldn't help but snort. "Try not to fall into a drift, with how tiny you are we might not find you."

Her gleaming eyes narrowed at my back, voice shifting to a growl. "Asshole... what's a drift?"

"You'll see." Shyeel chuckled, reaching out to hold onto my right arm to help keep her balance as the pilot throttled our engines down to nearly idling as we covered the final few meters of altitude. "Ready to go?"

"Fucking right I am." Jack growled before Ayle or I could speak, leaping out of the shuttle and landing in a crouch. The maneuver was slightly ruined by her nearly slipping on the slush our vehicle's engines had left beneath us, forcing her to throw both of her arms out for balance. "Shit! No one fucking says a thing."

Rolling my eyes, I let go of the bar above my head, hefting my shield off the ground with my other arm before taking a pair of lumbering steps. Hitting the ground far more heavily than she had, I shifted to her right while pulling my massive cannon off of my shoulders. Hefting the bulky weapon easily with one augmented hand, I surveyed the local area before shaking my head. "We're clear. Just a parking lot."

"Then get your metal ass out of the way Cie." Ayle dropped out behind us, her rifle held loosely as she covered the other flank. "Thul, get out here so they can start moving."

Jack and I moved out of the way, giving the large man enough space to follow. We started moving without waiting for further orders, Jack falling slightly behind the pair of us as we departed the dirty gray piles of slush and started stomping into the unplowed street. It wasn't more than five or six inches deep, just enough to be annoying without really being a huge problem.

At least for us. Voya was letting out a nearly unending stream of complaints, not made any better when Hesh joined Shyeel in needling her. Ayle shut them all up after a few minutes, which was understandable even if it had been amusing to listen to. Not that it mattered if they were bitching at one another for the first few minutes. The initial block was deserted, as was the second. Leaving us marching down the snow covered street without much to see.

The city itself seemed to be typical as far as Terminus colonies went. Two and three story buildings with tiny alleys cut between them, usually filled with garbage and other crap beneath the white dusting atop them. Very few ground vehicles or aircars were present, which wasn't terribly surprising. The fact that there was any at all likely marked this as one of the more affluent neighborhoods.

Any further observations, and wondering where the fuck the local civilians and slaves were, had to be put on hold when we ran smack into a patrol that came barreling around a corner about twenty meters ahead of us.

There was five or six of them, all Batarian, all wearing what looked like mix, civilian quality armor and clutching a chaotic assortment of weapons. The only thing they seemed to have universally in common was a yellow band tied around their upper left arms as some kind of identification.

Well, that and the fact that they were all dead within a matter of seconds.

My gun was already aimed at the corner, my finger tightening as I quickly laid out a pair of rounds. The first was a snap shot and missed high, the second was more carefully aimed, the heavy slug more or less disintegrating the target's head in a mess of blood and other crap I didn't look too closely at. A meter or so behind me and to my left, Thul likewise had snapped his rifle up, the Batarian made weapon thundering out a short burst that sent another pirate to bleed out in the snow.

Before he or I could shift our weapons to take out the last three, Jack elected to take her turn.

Stepping forwards from where she'd been between us, her armored body glowed with biotic light so dark is was nearly black before she let out a furious snarl and shoved a hand forwards. Now, I've seen some pretty impressive biotics in my time. Aethyta, Sederis, Vasir... they all were extreme badasses who made the average Asari matron look like a child biotically speaking.

Jack might not have been their peer, but she was damned close.

The shockwave that exploded outwards tore the street apart, snow exploding upwards from the craters in a serious of plumes, the pieces of concrete and dirt mixed in barely visible. Two of the pirates in the thing's path were... let's call them lucky. Their broken bodies were flung to either side like they'd been shot out of cannons, slamming into the buildings on either side of the street with enough force to kill them instantly.

Their friend on the other hand, took the shockwave straight on. They'd need a magnifying glass, and probably a mop, to collect what was left of him. The windows and doors blowing out of the corner building behind them when the last sections of the attack struck it was almost anti-climactic, and was quickly obscured by the mix of falling water, steam, and snow that came crashing back down to ground level.

There was an almost sexually pleased sound from Jack as she stared into the swirling mist. "Fuck. Yeah. Let's go find some more."

"With how loud that was," I shook my head slowly, impressed in spite of myself. "I'm guessing they'll find us."

She snickered. "Less work for us then."

A statement that proved to be entirely correct. Remembering Ayle's insistence on speed, we got moving again, picking our way around the body parts and bloody pools that were rapidly cooling in the street. Reaching the corner that the pirates had come around, I motioned for the other two to stay in place before leaning my heavy form out.

The security tower was little more than a four story shadow in the distance, visible only thanks to the flashes of explosions and combat taking place near the starport further south. While being able to see our target was only a good thing, I was more concerned with possible opposition at street level.

After a long moment I grimaced before pulling back. "We've got a barricade, maybe two blocks down. It's hard to tell, they've set fires about halfway between us and them. It's fucking with my infared, but there might be a dozen"

"A reinforced squad, they likely sent the patrol we just encountered to search for our shuttle's landing zone." Thul grunted, carefully shifting up before shaking his own head as he looked down the street. "I can only see the flames. Commander?"

I could see her helmet shake in my rear camera as she slowly caught up, visibly sticking the heavy path I'd cleared. "You spoke of the Pillars approval of bold action, did you not? Call your plan Cie."

My lips twitched a bit, fingers flexing around my shield's handle before tightening. "Jacqueline, those fires annoy the fuck out of me. Douse 'em. Everyone else, please don't get in front of me but do try to keep the fuck up."

And with that, I was moving again, slotting my weapons' barrel into the notch in my shield as I swung the latter directly to my front. Behind me everyone else started moving, Jack hot on my heels while everyone else spread out to move across the street in more of a broad wave.

We covered the initial sprint without any issues, whoever was manning the barricade not seeing us until I lumbered into the flickering firelight. Taking the first shot that rang off of my left shoulder pad as her cue, the biotic behind me grabbed my engine cowling and hauled herself up. Cursing as the sudden addition of weight made my eezo core and gyros fluctuate to compensate, I refrained from snapping at her as my vision turned blue as her biotics flared.

She let out a vicious sounding groan, the snow ahead of us exploding forwards as two wide throws covered nearly the entire damned street. The blazing fires that the locals had started inside of grates, cans, and barrels sizzled and then flashed out as the frozen water smothered them. Above and behind me, I heard a long gasp before hands slammed against the roof protecting my head.

"Fires are out... fucker..." Jack panted, sounding smug if a tad weary. "And look, fucking cover too. Hurts to be this goddamned good."

Snorting, I hunched myself forwards and accelerated to the mid-speed jog that was my best speed. "Shut up and hold on."

Storming into the swirling snow that she had created, I used my shield to bash a buried garbage bin out of my way, not slowing in the slightest. A few moments more brought us out of the other side, finally giving me a better look at the barricade that I'd seen. It really wasn't much, several ground trucks parked end to end with a small gap in the center of the street. Pirates were crouching in the vehicle's beds, pointing and likely shouting at one another as my armor kicked snow and slush aside as I raced forwards.

I didn't have to tell Jack to duck, her lithe frame entirely obscuring my rear-cameras as she ducked as best she could, hanging onto my engine with her hands while her feet planted themselves wherever she could find purchase. Gunfire promptly began to rattle against both my primary barriers and the secondary network built into my shield as I kept it up. None of it was terribly threatening, all light arms that weren't doing much more than nudge me.

My trigger finger tightened gently, sending my own replies back at them. Even with the armor's assistance I only hit one or two, but that was sufficient to drop them. All the while my eyes were mostly glued to the distance between me and them, a tight exhale emerging when I was about thirty meters away.

Relying on the thick bands to keep my shield in place, I loosened my grip with my left hand before shifting my fingers into a gesture. Pointing two fingers like an imaginary gun, I 'cocked' it with my thumb. The armor's VI, detecting the arrangement, chimed quietly as my new weapons system flicked green.

"Brace yourself." I warned Jack, jerking my thumb down to be parallel with the other two fingers. The new tubes bolted into my armor, three on each shoulder, promptly let out quiet _thumps_ as six spinning balls were flung into elegant arcs straight in front of me. A handful of breaths later, each of the grenades reached their assigned distances, and then detonated in a flash of light.

As far as first tests went, the results were mixed. The nearest grenades weren't quite oriented properly, peppering my armor with fragments, and another seemed to scatter it's payload too far to the right. The remaining three did their jobs well enough though, the rain of metal tearing apart a good half dozen pirates when their makeshift armor disintegrated beneath the barrage.

Still, it worked as a prologue for the slaughter that followed.

Smashing my way between a pair of trucks, I cut down a pair of stumbling Batarians while Jack leaped off of my back. Warpfire promptly began to burn as she used the dark energy to annihilate her own targets, the pair of us wordlessly breaking apart to clear out either flank. What few targets we didn't finish off died at their posts, killed when everyone else got close enough to get solid sight-lines to them.

Turning away from the last pirate, a Turian whose skull I'd crushed with my shield, I found myself shaking my head in confusion.

"These are the guys holding back three full companies of the Eclipse?" Hefting the metal slab up, I stared at the corpse. "I don't even think their armor had working barriers."

"They did." Ayle moved to stand beside me, her tone amused. "You're hitting them with anti-Krogan rounds Cie."

"Oh. Right."

"Still have a point though." She admitted, shifting to a knee to check the man's weapon. "Not crap like the True Sons might have given those drugged up kids but definitely not anything that should cause those Asari any issues. The reports Jarick is feeding me has troops with at least low-military grade gear."

"Must have limited numbers of them." Shaking my head, I rolled my shoulders to stretch them out as much as my internal restraints would allow before exhaling through my teeth. "Hopefully anyway."

"Agreed." Hefting herself back to her feet, she glanced around before nodding once. "Let's get moving. Jacqueline, you still good to lead?"

"Let me eat something." The human woman already had her helmet pulled up enough to expose her mouth, her hands tearing savagely at an energy bar. "Burned a lot of fucking calories there."

"Shyeel, you're up with Cieran and Thul. Voya, Marcus, cover her while she downs that, don't fall behind."

Marcus grunted, grabbing a second bar from his lover's belt and quickly opening it while she devoured the first. "We won't."

Sparing Voya a single glance as she checked the bodies to make sure that they weren't about to get up, I sucked in another breath and then resumed the advance. Thul fell into his usual place on my left, while Shyeel followed Jack's example and stayed behind me as I broke through the snow for her. Behind us, Ayle and her cadre let us build a bit of a lead before following, our leader offering the others a final reminder that she expected them to not end up separated from us.

We'd barely gotten moving again before Jarick's voice crackled behind my ears. " _Sir, ma'am. Eclipse techs just broke into the local network. We have a confirmed location on Besheren, he's setup a command center not far from your current location."_

"The Pillars guide us then." Thul sounded as if that had never been in doubt. "Is he in the security station we are advancing towards?"

" _Close sir. There is a large housing complex adjacent, the records show it was one of his subordinate's mansions that was being converted to a command center."_ His voice was abruptly muffled, feminine tones obscured as he spoke with someone else " _There is a general alert that they've lost contact with a patrol group in your area, they're sending the barracks' garrison to counter what they think is an Eclipse commando group headhunting for him."_

I felt myself grimace. "We've got incoming."

" _Yes sir. At least one squad... I think they're goal is just to hold you off. It sounds as if they're leaving two more in reserve in case any group breaks out of the starport. The Eclipse has resumed their own advances."_

"The plan remains the same." Ayle snapped before I could even propose the idea of trying to setup and ambush. "If the Eclipse gets near him before we do he'll bolt and someone else will get the bounty. Jacqueline, get your tattooed ass moving."

Behind us, I could see the three stragglers shift into motion, the biotic yanking her helmet back down as they ran. While they did that, the Batarian woman continued to speak. "Cieran, continue the advance until we reach the barracks. We'll cut through it to reach this command post and eliminate whatever reserves are there to make sure they don't interfere."

"Got it." This was going to be just a fucking blast. Rather than voicing that opinion, which would only lead to Ayle bitching at me, I instead focused on getting back up to my top speed, focusing more on what was ahead of me than where everyone else was.

Typically, that turned out to be a good idea in short order, vague heat-blobs becoming visible in the distance even as the storm above us increased its tempo. Mindful of the orders that Ayle had just given, I kept my pace, again slotting my weapon into the notch on my shield to provide a bit more stability.

My first double-shot went high and to the left, making the vague shapes duck in sudden alarm. Cursing myself, I corrected for my second pair, this time driving one of them to the ground. He or she was still moving, so I put a third round into them that seemed to put them down for good. At about the same time wild shots began to head back towards me, the formation scattering to the sides as the pirates quite sensibly ran to get out of the open.

"Five left, six right." I called out, shifting to a diagonal track that carried me towards the latter side of the street. "Heading right, Thul, Shyeel, cover my left."

"Hesh, Ullak. Split left with me." Ayle added her own orders. "We'll catch them in a crossfire when they focus on Cie."

The incoming fire started as a few random shots, none well-aimed, while I fired a quick triple-burst at a figure that was a tad slow in getting into an alleyway. The three shots did what two couldn't a piece of heat flying away as a limb was torn off of my target, the rest of their body dropping limply. By the time I shifted to a new target, I'd drawn close enough that whatever weak vision enhancements the pirates had could pick me out.

Slugs of metal began spiraling off of my barriers, first as a trickle, then a torrent as all ten survivors got in on the action. My heavy metal shield continued to do its job, protecting my weapon even as I gunned down another pirate. By that point I was close enough to actually see my targets without the enhanced images... sort of at least. They'd had the good sense to repaint their armor in winter camouflage patterns, the white and blue hiding the bulk of their bodies extremely well.

In a way that was a good thing, it let me see the tell-tale red glow of a shotgun prepped to fire a carnage round before its wielder could pull the trigger, letting me twist around and brace my arm for the imminent impact. The secondary alarm for my shield's barriers shrieked as they collapse, a vicious Quarian oath escaping me as the blow dislodged my gun from its notch and drove my left arm into my chest.

"Shyeel, take him!" An awkward stutter-step to my left gave her the room she needed, a swirl of snow roaring in her wake as a biotic charge hurled her past me. Her pistol barked several times, the flash muted as she jammed it into her targets throat.

From that point on, things got rather messy. Thul swiftly dropped another pirate with his rifle, covering Shyeel when she darted back behind me as I advanced past her. One of the pirates froze up as stormed forwards through the snow, her rifle blasting in panic fire that didn't do much beyond send sparks off my shield. He had enough time for a desperate shout before I hauled my gun around like a club and slammed it into his neck. Another scream easily carried across my external microphones when I crushed one of his legs by stepping on it, the sound cutting out when Shyeel deftly executed him as she trailed behind me.

Seeing her comrade's grisly fate, the last pirate tried to make a run for it, sprinting for an alley only to be cut down by both of my squad-mates before she could make it more than a dozen meters.

"Right cleared. Continuing the advance." Flicking my eyes to the left, I caught sight of two pirates darting into a building, a third collapsing before he could join them. "Shit."

"Shit!" Ayle snarled in time with me. "Hesh, Ullak. Get to the other side of the street and bring this thing down, then catch up."

"Tarath'shan." The former grunted, the pair of them swapping their rifles for their grenade launchers before trudging across the street.

"I can bring that fucker down." Jack pointed out as she and others managed to finally gain some ground on the rest of us.

"No, I want you fresh for the barracks."

The other woman grunted again, she and the others joining the Commander as the seven of us kept moving. Muted explosions and flashes of light began occurring in short order behind us, the last two members of the squad sounding very much as though they were enjoying a bit of wanton destruction. Well, Hesh did. Ullak was a stoic as ever.

Tuning them out, I shifted channels. "Any updates for us kid?"

" _The unit you eliminated got off a distress call."_ His voice was tense. " _They're aware that there is a power armor unit with biotic support advancing on them."_

Athame's azure. "They have a plan?"

" _If they do they're using land-lines to discuss it sir. One moment..."_ I barely had enough time to grind my teeth, eying the massive shadow of the barracks tower as we approached the compound. " _They're only heavy weapon teams are already deployed elsewhere, at least according to their records. It's possible that they have ordnance not recorded in their system."_

More likely probable, most pirate groups didn't really go for paperwork. That this group had at all meant something, though that investigation was definitely going to have to wait. "Thanks Jarick, good work."

" _Thank yo-"_

The rest of his words were cut off when a high powered sniper round skipped off the armored box protecting my skull, my speakers shrieking in alarms with how much damage my barriers had just taken.

"Son of a-!" Stumbling in surprise, I snapped my gun up, triggering a short burst at the tiny figure on the tower that had just shot at me. It wasn't my most accurate attack, a point proven when another shot sent sparks off my left shoulder as the sniper fired again. "Shyeel!?"

"I don't have a thermal scope!" She shouted back, hunching slightly to make sure she was entirely behind me as we moved. "We need to get inside!"

"No shit!" Giving up any attempt at laying down suppressing fire, my weapon fired too slowly to do that effectively either way, I hefted my shield up to protect my head and focused on running.

Whoever the shooter was could obviously see me, but likely not in real detail. Three more rounds hit me, roughly at about where my head and shoulders would be if I hadn't hauled a slab of metal and electronics into the way. The shield's own barriers held off the first one, the next two hammering dents that made me snarl in irritation. Seriously, I had _just_ fucking gotten it fixed and someone was already blasting _dents_ into it!?

"Ayle! Don't follow yet! Sniper who can fucking see!"

"Sand eating piece of..." The cursing drifted into a snarling rumble, but I could see her and the others shift into cover, Jack blowing a door apart in a flash of biotics as they darted into a building. "Voya, to the roof! I want that sniper dead!"

The incoming fire cut off when I reached the compound's outer wall, which sounded more impressive than it was. Like everything else in the city it had obviously been built cheaply and quickly instead of properly. Since there wasn't a doorway or gate in sight, the damned thing was probably up and around the corner, I elected to make my own. Sucking in a tight breath, I hauled my shield back and then slammed it into the sheet metal crudely held up with nothing more than spot welds. There was a long metallic groan, a massive dent visible when I pulled my arm back in preparation to hit it again.

"Easy there Cie, give me a moment." Shyeel planted a hand on my left arm before I could bring it back to hit it again.

Moving past me, she idled close to the wall, finding the obvious seam. Tracing a gloved finger along it, she nodded firmly before her arm began to glow. Letting out a focused hiss, she kept the warpfire contained to a tiny section near her hand, the dark energy tearing apart the bonds holding the sheet of metal in place.

Somewhere in the wind I heard the harsh cracks of sniper fire resuming, the heavy shot from the pirate countered by the lighter, more rapid sounds from Voya's Viper.

 _"Bosh'tet!"_ The latter growled across the radio as the fire abruptly cut out. " _We nicked each other, but that fucker is still alive."_

" _Get back here!"_ There was an annoyed growl from the Quarian as she as apparently manhandled by Ayle. " _And wait for your barriers to recharge!"_

" _I'm fin-"_

"Voya shut up and do what she says." I snapped, inhaling as Shyeel stepped aside and motioned for me to take another turn. This time the impact was rather more what I'd been hoping for. Already torn free on one side, and likely weakened on the other, the cheap panel rang like a bell as it was flung inwards, the rest of the walls wavering wildly on either side.

Stepping into the compound, I had enough time to flick my eyes around, the suit's cameras giving me a decent enough picture of the place.

Rectangular in shape, we'd entered at one of the narrower ends. A good number prefab blocks had been laid out end-to-end in a pair of rows, probably serving as the barracks proper, with both sets overlooked by the four story tower at the other end. I couldn't fully tell from where we were, but it looked like there was an open space around the base of it where aircars or ground vehicles might have been parked normally.

Our actual target was likely the two-story structure looking over the opposite wall, just on the other side of the tower whose sniper proved he was very much still breathing when he put another fucking around into my chest. It didn't do much to the heavy plate, but it kept my fucking barriers down and further increased my annoyance.

Another blow hammered my shield yet again, but this time was accompanied by an echo, then a viciously pleased Voya. " _Got the asshole. Good job being bait Cie."_

"No problem." I growled back, even as more shots began to flash at me from the prefabs' doorways. With my barriers down the continuous impacts sounded rather like rain, albiet the kind that would be distinctly inimical to my health if any of them found a weak point. Snapping my gun up, I swore when all four of the shooters promptly ducked back behind either side of the two doors, not giving me anything to blast. "Thul!"

The former priest was already yanking a grenade off of his belt, exposing himself just long enough to toss the incendiary bomb into the building on our left. A brief shout of alarm was followed by the usual agonized screams of people lit on fire by the Batarian napalm. One of them stumbled into the open to be cut down by my heavy weapon, while the other seemed to have died from the blast.

"I don't think you'll fit inside Cieran." Thul's voice was entirely casual, as if we weren't in the middle of a firefight. Moving back behind me, he primed another grenade before hurling it into the other open doorway. "Not into these anyway."

This time there weren't any screams, or shouts even. I did catch a brief glimpse of two people bolting back from the door before the blast, followed shortly thereafter by the door itself slamming down to seal the place.

Grimacing, I glanced at the other doorway to check the dimensions, then gave an annoyed grunt. "He's right Ayle."

" _Have Shyeel and Thul keep them pinned, start advancing on the tower. Jacqueline will join you, I'll take the others into the barracks and clear it."_

"Got it."

I covered my companions while they advanced on the open doorway, taking positions on either side as they started exchanging short bursts with whatever defenders were still inside. By the time they'd gotten into place, and I'd begun moving right, Ayle and most of our team was entering through the hole we'd made in the wall. While she, Marcus, and Voya jogged towards the others, Jack's small frame bounded along until she behind me again.

"Don't you fucking-" Metallic clanging was followed by my rear-cameras again being blinded by a body clinging to my back. "Fucking bitch. I'm not your ride."

"Shut up and move asshole." She snickered, banging the butt end of her pistol above my head.

Swallowing a few more well deserved curses, I focused on lumbering around the corner, accelerating along the flank of the right row of prefabs as we headed towards the tower. Jack amused herself by blowing out the windows as we moved past, her pistol snapping off rounds that at least made life more annoying for whoever was inside. We didn't come under fire then, or even when we reached our objective.

Up close, the tower proved to be something like a massive concrete block, with a thin stairwell winding its way around and around until it reached the armored box mounted atop the thing.

"We need to clear that post up there. You going to get off or do it from here?"

"No fucking way I'm runnin' those stairs." Dark blue light began to color most of the rest of my cameras, again damn-near blinding me. The shockwave roared upwards like a demonic creature, the successive blasts tearing the metal stairs apart as if they'd been made of balsa wood. When it reached the top, the guardhouse's windows shattered, sending glass to join the concrete and metal already raining downwards.

Cursing, I dropped to a knee with a crash, hauling my shield up over both myself and Jack, dropping my weapon to grip it with both hands. Debris promptly began to batter it, the deluge lasting for several moments before ending as the last pieces fell to the ground.

"Cleared."

Rolling my eyes, I shifted back to my feet, picking my gun up in the process. "Tower cleared Ayle, we're moving onto the main target."

" _Confirmed._ " Gunfire interspersed itself with her words, the sound muted enough by the buildings and wind that I hadn't heard it on my own. " _Hesh and Ullak are nearly here, they'll advance to back you up."_

"As if we fuckin' need backup." My passenger growled as I lurched back into motion. "We're the biggest badasses in the goddamned group."

"They've got grenade launchers, remember?"

She seemed to mull on that as I stomped us past the tower, heading towards the open gate that would take us into the neighboring compound. "I guess a few more explosions could be fun."

Snorting, I was still shaking my head when we nearly walked straight into a barrage. If I hadn't slowed down to lean around the corner edge we'd have been hammered by the dozen plus pirates who were apparently waiting for us. Instead both of us swore violently as I yanked myself back. If my eezo core hadn't been so quick to shift my mass I might have fallen back and crushed Jack beneath me, instead I merely stumbled just before a pair of propelled grenades roared past us.

"Athame's fucking azure!" Shifting my gun and shield back into place, I tried to run through what I'd seen in my brief glimpse. "Jacqueline, off! Ayle, there's a firing line in a hanger, and I think more guns in windows over here!"

 _"Sir, this is Jarick."_ The kid cut in before she could speak, his voice almost panicked. _"Besheren knows he's being attacked by you. I mean, by Reyja'krem. His goal is to kill you for the bounty and then flee the planet."_

" _So he's personally leading them now?"_

_"Yes ma'am!"_

Well at least we wouldn't have to waste time hunting him down. Moving back to the edge, I exposed my shield and left side to bait out another barrage before ducking back, a carnage round and yet another grenade sending shards to cut at my legs. "They're ready for power armor Ayle, no chance I can just rush them."

" _We aren't going to be free for several minutes Cieran."_ She growled back, more gunfire sounding. " _We've cleared one row, but the other still has pirates inside. If we leave them they'll hit you from behind."_

Dammit. "Jacqueline, can you maintain a barrier on the move?"

"If you want me to stop the fucking snow, sure." Darting around my legs, she fired off a few blind shots with her pistol, jerking the weapon back as another torrent of tracer rounds tried to knock it out of her hand. "No one can fucking maintain something to stop bullets and move it around. You have to anchor that shit."

Making a mental note to do more studying on biotics after this mission, I ran my head through other options. Fuck I hated having to attack like this, defending positions was so much easier. Flanking was out, waiting for Hesh and Ullak seemed to be the smartest idea but the longer we waited the more likely it was that Besheren decided that fleeing was smarter than sticking around.

My gun was fucking powerful, but it wouldn't do much beyond annoy the shuttle I'd seen idling in the open hanger.

But in order to fucking get there we had to cross thirty meters of open ground, and my armor wouldn't hold up to the kind of fire they'd prepared to hurl our way. Without cover I didn't...

Huh. "You remember dousing those fires?"

"Of course I fucking... oh." She went quiet as she mulled on it before nodding in approval. "Suddenly I don't mind this white shit so much."

Resisting the urge to grumble she moved back, scrambling up and onto my back like a monkey once again, I edged to the corner and hefted my shield up, both of us taking long and heavy breaths in preparation. As soon as she banged a hand against a shoulder, I was moving, blue light roaring into life around us as she pulled dark energy around her. The pirates had enough time to let loose a volley, my shield slamming against my chest yet again as a carnage round nearly tore it from my grasp, and then Jack did her thing.

Instead of a pair of wide throws, this time she'd elected for a pair of shockwaves, something I'd only ever seen Sederis manage to pull off. They weren't nearly as strong as the few she'd been tossing around earlier, more flash than destructive force, but they were more than enough to blast the foot of snow on the ground up and into the air.

Hunching my shoulders, I pushed my legs and armor as hard as I could, racing forwards. I held back from shooting at any of the heat blooms that I could see, the last thing I wanted was to give away our position with muzzle-flashes. We made it about two thirds of the way before the whiteout started to clear, most of the material quickly returning to the pavement. Before I could say anything, Jack let out a growl and sent another blast ahead of us.

This one was at full power, the blasts tearing out ahead of us to clear the way, the subdued sounds of metal tearing and people shouting barely audible as we moved.

And then we were inside of the hanger, and shit got... messy. There were easily a dozen plus pirates in the hanger, but we no longer had to worry about the extra firepower from the ones who'd been manning the building's windows.

A pirate scrambled back as I loomed out of the snow, his shotgun trying to swing up before I simply slammed my gun into his chest and blew it apart into bloody fragments. Jack leapt clear of me, cackling as her biotics flared. Tools and equipment were mentally hurled at lethal speeds, the impacts slamming men and women into the ground with screams of pain.

I stumbled left when a heavy blast slammed into my right shoulder, barriers shrieking yet again as they were depleted. The shooter stumbled back, dropping his grenade launcher as he screamed, clutching at where the back-blast of his own weapon had torn open his armor. Executing him with a single shot, I shifted further left and cut down a Batarian woman with a rifle as she tried to send a burst in Jack's direction.

"Kean!" Turning at the woman's shout, I saw her diving sensibly behind a groundcar of some kind, "He's running for the shuttle!"

Whipping myself around, I snarled as I caught sight of a heavyset Batarian pumping his arms as he ran for safety, his elegant armor enough to mark him as our target.

A quick burst just ahead of him sent him stumbling backwards, diving behind a coolant tank before I could get a better line on him.

Disdainfully ignoring the few pirates still shooting at me with small arms, I lumbered forwards, shifting to get between him and the shuttle. I was so focused on that I didn't see the next blow coming, a carnage round whipping to slam into my shield. The heavily abused slab of metal finally tore free from my arm and hand, the angled blow making it impossible for me to hold on.

Furiously cursing, I slammed my left hand onto my gun into a two-handed grip, the weapon barking three times as I killed the fucker who'd just given me _more_ work to do.

Thoroughly fed up with the entire fucking situation by that point, I let out a snarling hiss and turned back in time to see Besheren making another run for it. It was a lot fucking easier to aim with both hands, my first round tearing his left shin into a bloody mess as he went down with a yowling scream.

Not leaving anything to chance, I covered the distance between myself and the prone man, placing a heavy metal foot onto his chest as I pinned him in place. "Besheren?"

When he just let out more pained sounds and tried to wiggle free, I growled before shouting. "Someone fucking tell me if this is Besheren!"

"It is!" Glancing up, I saw a Batarian woman in the shuttle, her clothing marking her as the probable pilot. She kept her hands well away from the pistol on her belt, raising them in the universal gesture of surrender. "That's him!"

"Good." Swiveling my gun into line, I blew the asshole's throat apart. "Your free to go. Anyone else want to fucking live a bit longer!?"

Apparently they did, because the remaining firing trickled to a stop, the remaining pirates not seeing any reason to keep fighting with their boss dead and me apparently willing to let them keep breathing.

"Kid." Leaving Jack, and the panting forms of Hesh and Ullak, to round them all up, I slowly walked back to my shield, staring at the torn metal. "Ayle, we got him. Fighters in here are standing down."

" _Understood sir, I've alerted the Eclipse... looks like most of the rest are fleeing."_

Ayle exhaled heavily enough for her mic to pick it up. " _Good. We're heading your way Cie. We'll confirm the kill and then get out of here."_

"Confirmed." Sagging slowly in relief as the adrenaline finally began to cut down, I lumbered over towards the prisoners, helping the others keep everything calm until it was time to leave this bloody planet.

* * *

**Secure Message, Eclipse Private Servers**

_Mistress Sederis,_

_I can confirm some of the reports about Starkhaven, Besheren's people were much better trained than anyone expected. I've taken a look at some of the weapons and armor we scavenged before we left, the manufacturer's markings, and style, aren't anything I've seen before. At first glance I'd call them knock-offs of Alliance weapons, blockier in shape but with a definite eye towards reliability._

_Yes, we did test that. Thul and Ayle took turns slamming one of the rifles around the cargo bay, including wailing on a punching bag with it, and the damn thing still worked fine. Minimal electronics, no omni-tool connection... not expensive to make by modern standards, and far better than what most pirates use._

_Can you confirm if one of Zaen's granddaughters was present on Starkhaven? If that old Krogan is training and equipping pirates, this war is going to be a lot more fucking annoying than I thought._

_On a more personal note, please tell Trena to stop messaging me, and I did appreciate you giving her a black eye for me. If you have any more questions concerning what she informed you of, we expect to be back on Omega within a month._

_Respectfully,_

_Reyja'krem Ciearn Kean_

* * *

_**Next up is Operation: Blitzkrieg IV** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Giant author's note to go with a giant chapter.
> 
> So... yeah, this was a beast of a chapter, and one that was rather difficult to write. Not so much because of the content, I actually enjoyed that, but because I have several games all calling to me right now that have made it rather hard to concentrate... looking at you Fallout and Heroes of the Storm.
> 
> I'm not sure I've really explained Zaen much in these stories directly, but there is a small section on him in Exploring the Galaxy. Long story short: He's the second most powerful Blood Pack warlord, and enjoys Asari company to the point where he has great-grandchildren. Less of a personal badass than Ganar, he's wickedly intelligent and has no problems admitting his, and his people's, shortcomings.
> 
> Next chapter will wrap up this act with a raid on a Krogan scientist's lab, and see just what's going on there. After that will be a time-skip to an interlude, and then things will get... messy.
> 
> One additional thing, there's a poll on the top of my profile page concerning Cieran's future romantic interest. While I do have who he'll end up with in my outline, I'm increasingly.. flaky on it and was wondering what all of you thought. Right now I intend to just let the story, and the romance, write itself, but if there's a ton of votes/interest in someone who doesn't end up as the LI I might be persuaded to write a one-shot about Cie and them. :)
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	16. Operation: Blitzkrieg IV

_I don't own the Mass Effect._

* * *

**Operation: Blitzkrieg IV**

_Date: 10-02-2182_

_Location: Eclipse destroyer Final Touch approaching T-987B, Nevarra System, Northern Terminus_

* * *

I knew the situation wasn't good when Ayle dragged me out of the cargo bay and down to her quarters, making sure to lock the door after we entered the small room.

I knew the situation was worse than that when she refused to say anything until she'd ignited a pipe, spending nearly two minutes furiously smoking chehala without so much as a word.

But it wasn't until she actually spoke that I realized how fucked up shit was.

"That dust addicted sand eating idiotic gutter-born bitch..." Her voice was little more than a growl around the wood in her mouth. "How fucking hard is it to establish a blockade!?"

My lips pressed together. "He's gone, isn't he?"

"Of course he fucking is." She snarled, turning away to begin pacing. "Four million credits and our best chance to rise to Aria's attention left the system on a frigate ten hours ago. And what does the idiotic bitch in charge of the Eclipse fleet do? _Nothing._ "

"That's... shit." Reaching up, I rubbed at my face as I processed that.

On one hand, a lot of fucking credits had just up and vanished, which wasn't going to make anyone else happy. Worse, he'd been the first real target who might have known where Krom currently was and what that asshole was doing. Any real shot that I'd had at killing that asshole soon had more or less rested on finding out what Okeer knew and then setting up the appropriate ambush.

On the other hand...I still hadn't exactly been looking forwards to this mission. Don't get me wrong, everything I knew said that Ganar Okeer was a colossal dick who definitely deserved to be taken out, but I'd prefer it to happen after he created Grunt. Of course, that was assuming that was something that would actually happen.

Shaking my head slowly, I forced myself to stay on the bloody mission. "What's the plan then?"

"It depends." She growled around her pipe, the smoke billowing out of her nose. "Would killing an Asari Admiral _too lazy_ to even order a _proper_ scan of the only city on planet harm our relationship with Sederis?"

I could only snort. "Probably. She keeps that kind of discipline in-house."

"Damn." Ayle turned away as her body continued to move back and forth across the small cabin. "So much for that. Our only available target on planet is one of Okeer's subordinates who remained behind for reasons unknown."

"That doesn't sound like much of a bounty." I shook my head. "How bad?"

"Two fifty." She grunted when I winced at the number. "More bad news, an Asari bounty hunter on planet already tried to kill him. The last message back to the Eclipse was her screaming as something killed her."

"Lovely. That increment his worth any?"

"No." Her upper eyes rolled. "The only one with the authority to do that is said moronic admiral, who's convinced that the hunter was killed by nothing more than trained varren."

Reaching up, I pinched the bridge of my nose and forced myself to exhale slowly. "Athame's fucking... why even bother? I can message Sederis on the way back to Omega."

"The ship needs to discharge its drive core regardless," One of her shoulder's twitched. "And if we're stuck here anyway, some profit is better than nothing at all."

"Fair." Exhaling again, I shifted my hand to run through my long hair, trying to think. "What's the situation on the surface?"

"In a word: shit."Another plume of smoke escaped her mouth, "The Blood Pack released an airborne toxin into the colony as soon as they realized how outnumbered they were, and apparently were able to hack the ventilation systems to prevent them from sealing the domes. Civilian casualties are effectively total, and the Eclipse lost a few dozen idiots who didn't have their armor properly sealed."

"Full vacuum seals on our armor then. And decom when we come back." I exhaled. "Population was what? Two thousand?"

"Something like that." She shrugged, idly chewing on the end of her pipe as her lower eyes lidded in thought. "It's going to be a macabre scene down there. You can warn Thul, I'll make sure that Jarick doesn't watch any of the video feeds."

"Thanks." More than half-wishing I had my own pipe on me, I dredged up the rest of the colony's details into my head to get things straight. "Basic low-atmosphere setup if I remember right, all linked and enclosed prefab domes. That's going to make maneuvering around the fighting a bitch and a half."

A hand waved dismissively as she tilted her head. "It's probably impossible, so we won't even make the attempt. The Pack are penned into the industrial dome, along with two of the residential blocks. Our target is supposedly in the former. Plan is simple, locate the weakest point in their defenses, breach it at full speed, kill him, and get out."

"At least it's simple." I bowed my own head in polite acceptance. "I'm guessing my team will be leading?"

"As much as the place could probably use a few holes in it, likely best not to let Jack tear it apart." She agreed with a slight nod. "Make sure Voya has her hand cannon on this run, won't be much use for her Viper."

"I'll give her few containers of incinerate mines as well. That'll let me hold back on the grenade usage."

Ayle grunted. "Likely for the best, especially as you don't have a reload mechanism for those launchers yet."

My left shoulder twitched. "Give me a week and access to the stores we left with the Eclipse on Omega."

"After this mission." The Commander promised. "Though it will be two weeks, to give you time to get everything else upgraded."

Detachable thermal scopes, upgraded camera suites for everyone's helmets, an ammo feeder for my flak-field launchers, patching up all of the battering our equipment had taken... I seriously needed to call Illyan when we got back, as much as Voya was going to hate having the big Asari around again. We needed the fucking help, the two of us might have been able to keep everything running if it was just regular arms and armor, but tossing my power armor in just lead to too much crap to deal with.

Pushing those thoughts away, I shook myself a bit. "Anything else for this run?"

"No." Her upper eyes flicked to where her armor was resting next to her bed. "Get down to the cargo bay, I'll be there shortly. Have everyone prepped and ready."

Shifting my head left, I accepted the orders before backing out of her cabin.

Unfortunately things continued to remain aggravating from that point onwards. Getting everyone brought up to speed didn't take long, even with the less-than-muted swearing that the news had brought. We'd gotten into our armor and loaded up onto one of the destroyer's shuttles, where we'd promptly sat around for nearly an hour as our ship's captain bitched out the local fleet airboss who didn't want to work our landing into her traffic pattern.

The _Touch_ 's Captain didn't have any issues convincing me to ask Sederis to take a long, hard look at how fucked up this part of the Campaign was going.

Nor were things on the ground any better once we finally did land, though this again seemed to be the fault of the Asari in orbit rather than the Salarian Commander on the ground. He was waiting for us when we landed, which was yet another bad sign.

"The bounty chasing mercenaries." His speech was slower than normal for one of his people, matching the unusually heavy armor he was wearing. It was heavily battered, which drew approving nods from the both of us, and a respectful tilt of Ayle's head as we approached him. "I'm afraid I don't have much good news for you."

"We're aware that our target is gone." Ayle rumbled. "If our ship didn't need to discharge we wouldn't bother chasing down his assistant at all."

"Quite understandable." He sighed. "Apologies, my short-name is Vethi. I'm the local Commander of this invasion, for what that's worth. Honestly with the civilians dead and the virus likely having filtered through the system, we should have already pulled out and flattened this place from orbit."

I grunted. "Admiral said no?"

"Her orders were to invade and seize this colony." Vethi sounded even less approving of the woman than we were. "Orders she is sticking to regardless of the practical situation."

"Pillars save us from idiots in power." My fellow Reyja'krem sighed through her teeth. "I don't suppose you can tell us anything about the target? Or provide assistance in anyway?"

"I have limited data on the former. The latter however..." His head shook disgustedly. "She is as incompetent at logistics as she is at everything else. We're critically low on medical supplies that are preventing any kind of major advance."

I twisted my lips. "Soon as I meet with Sederis again, you won't have to deal with her anymore."

"You have no idea how much I would appreciate that. As for your target, he is a ninety year old Krogan. Unlike most of his kind he is not violently inclined, likely why Okeer took him on as an assistant." Pausing, he brought up his omni-tool to check something before nodding slowly. "Miss T'Sha tracked him to this region of the industrial dome, she went out onto the planet's surface to flank the primary fighting."

"What happened to her?" Ayle's helmet glanced at where the rest of our team was finishing getting off of the shuttle, the vehicle powering down as the pilot prepared to wait for our return rather than deal with any of the tits in orbit. "I'm guessing it wasn't a Varren pack."

"Doubtful, she was more than skilled enough to deal with such a thing. And too experienced to blunder into such a group regardless." Long fingers twitched before he shut his wrist computer down. "Regrettably I do not have firm idea of what could have eliminated her so quickly. Most likely it was a biotic, though they usually have positions of power in the Blood Pack, and their local garrison commander is assuredly not enhanced in such a fashion."

Huh... "A bodyguard maybe?"

My commander shrugged an armored shoulder. "Perhaps. We'll be on our guard regardless. Commander Vehi, any particular location you believe we could breach through the fastest?"

He seemed to mull over that for a few moments. "Tunnel D. It's one of the narrower passages, and so has fewer defenses. Still a kill zone, which is why my people have even tried to breach it yet. But with your power armor it should be doable."

"Cieran?"

I shrugged invisibly within said power armor. "I'll want eyes on it before I commit."

Grunting, she glanced around again. "Marcus, run ahead and get to Tunnel D. I want a full sitrep of what we're looking at. Commander, I won't ask your people to advance with us but if you could secure our fall-back route that would be appreciated."

He nodded, slowly accelerating into a slow jog when Vethi gestured for one of his aide's to guide him to the appropriate location. The two humans exchanged a few quick words and then were off, darting out one of the side exits

While they departed, the Salarian Commander turned back to Ayle, bowing his head in the Batarian fashion of one equal thanking another. He managed it politely enough that Ayle responded in kind. "The Tunnel will be held behind you."

"Thank you." Ayle brought a hand up to adjust her radio frequency, "Jarick, see what you can glean for us. And if you could prevail upon Captain T'Yetha to get more supplies to the local defenders, it would be appreciated as well."

" _She was listening ma'am."_ The kid swallowed for a moment, " _Her first officer is trying to talk her out of shooting the Admiral's ship."_

Oh goddess. "Beg her if you have to, I'd like to get out of this system alive."

" _I will sir."_

Exchanging quick farewells with Vethi, we waited only long enough for him to assign another one of his people to guide us before setting off in the same direction that Marcus had left in. My squad took the lead with the member of the Eclipse, Ayle's team traveling in our wake.

The first few minutes honestly reminded me of Denara, feeling more like an underground facility rather than an above-ground colony. Reinforced hallways, airlocks for doors, plenty of ductwork to manage the flow of air, that kind of thing. We made rather good time, despite my usual lumbering pace.

Things got a bit darker when we entered another dome and started to see the first bodies. It was one of the residential areas, and so there was plenty of them. Most were Batarian, though here and there were members of other species. Nearly all of them were wearing cheap, laborer's clothing, nothing that could even come close to protecting them from the very air they were breathing.

Here and there were darker scenes, where some of the civilians had gotten airmasks on. Or at least tried to before they'd been mobbed by others trying to get them for themselves. The end result had been nobody had kept the things, or they'd ended up broken in the process. Fuck, even for someone as jaded as I was becoming it wasn't exactly a pretty place to walk through... especially when I could see where children had fallen.

Adults? Eh, I'd cut down enough people on my own that seeing corpses that had vomited blood before they died to not terribly bother me. Teenagers, or the various equivelants across the different species? More nightmare worthy but I'd had to kill enough drugged up True Son idiots to push it aside. Actual children though? That was... I made a point to keep my eyes up after seeing the first tiny body.

Thankfully Marcus reached the tunnel in time to distract me, and likely everyone else, his voice coming across our helmets as he reported in.

" _Looks big enough to fit Kean, plus maybe one person next to him on the main path."_ That wouldn't leave us much maneuvering room, though he continued before I could ask the logical question. " _Another could probably move along the service tracks, they're elevated on the right side. Whole thing is maybe thirty meters long."_

"Defenses?" Ayle inquired, her own helmet studiously staying level to help her not notice what she was stepping over. "Eclipse presence?"

" _Several Vorcha setup behind makeshift barricades... I can see more movement behind them in the next dome, but nothing specific. There's one Eclipse squad here, mostly just making sure no one tries to counter-attack through this way. Have a nice kill-zone setup just outside the tunnel."_

The woman grunted in slight approval at the latter, "No Krogan?"

" _No ma'am. Figure at least one up ahead to run herd on the Vorcha... wait one. He just poked his head in to yell at them to stay alert. Looks like some war varren around his feet. Can't see his gun."_

"Cie?"

I shrugged inside my metal cocoon. "Sounds doable to me. Thul can be on the floor with me, Voya can take the tracks. Shyeel will follow up behind. What are we looking at after the tunnel?"

" _According to the locals, another entry lobby that's probably fortified, then an open dome with industrial construction inside."_

"Sounds fun." Shyeel muttered. "Nothing like fighting through an enclosed kill zone then running into the open to make swimming in a storm sound like a good idea."

Thankfully Thul spoke up before I had to try and find the words to make it seem like I didn't entirely share that sentiment. "Shyeel, please. The situation is less than ideal, we do not need the additional commentary to remind us."

"What? I can't wish that I was already in Afterlife getting serviced by the prostitute that Cie owes me?"

I rolled my eyes. "You don't need to keep reminding me."

"Yes I do. Can't have you trying to rip me off by setting me up with some street whore."

"I don't hate you _that_ much."

There was a scoffing noise. "So you _do_ hate me."

"Doesn't everyone hate you?" Voya tried for an innocent tone and almost entirely failed at it.

"Thul doesn't."

"By the blessed Pillars, leave me out of this discussion." Said man sighed through his teeth. "And can we please focus on our mission?"

Rolling my eyes, I could only chuckle at his pleading tones. "Fine. Shyeel, Voya, hold the bickering until after we kill the Krogan scientist... apprentice... whatever he is."

"Oh come on." Jack grumbled, belatedly reminding me that the other squad was still present. "I have money on Voya killing Shy before the year is out."

There was an annoyed sound from the Asari in question. " _Thank you_ Jacqueline. Remind me to-"

"Quiet! All of you!" Ayle cut off the arguing before it could go any further. "Stay on the fucking mission."

Everyone shut up, though knowing my companions as well as I did at this point, I put next to no stock in them staying quiet for more than a few minutes after the shooting stopped. Still, the arguing at least had occupied us the rest of the way to our target tunnel, or connecting tube to be more accurate. I had no idea why they called it a tunnel, it was very much as above ground as the rest of the colony... must have been a local thing.

Slowing enough for the Eclipse locals to get out of my way, I bowed my torso in greeting to Marcus, the other man leaning against a wall as he nodded his helmet back at me. "No change, six Vorcha inside. Have fun."

"We have different definitions of fun." I remarked, rolling my neck and pausing so that the members of my squad could take up their positions.

Shyeel shifted close behind me while Thul was taking his usual place on my shield-side. For her part, Voya bounced once on her heels and then darted across the open doorway next to Marcus, bounding up and onto the slightly elevated cargo tracks. Once she had settled into a tiny alcove, pulling her pistol out with one hand while firing up her omni-tool with the other, I let out a slow exhale and half closed my eyes as I psyched myself up for yet another fight.

"Let's get this over with." Pushing off, I moved around Marcus and through the narrow doorway.

The Vorcha had apparently seen him peeking in, or Voya darting across, because they were ready for me. Well, ready for someone to advance into the room. I don't think they had any idea that someone in power armor was about to trample towards them, or they've had brought in bigger guns.

Instead two of them began hammering me with assault rifle fire that was loud and annoying without doing more than nudge my barriers a bit.

"Enemies!" One screamed in its irritating, hissing voice, shouting the warning to whoever was listening. It opened its fanged maw to say something else, but whatever it was went unsaid when I put a heavy round through its skull.

The other two Vorcha didn't last much longer. Voya promptly immolated the one smart enough to try and duck behind a makeshift barricade, while Thul took out the remainder. That done with, and not seeing a point in lingering, I continued forwards. Smashing aside what little crap was in our way, I slowed just enough to make sure that all three of the things were actually dead.

"Ayle, tunnel clear, moving up." I managed to get the words out right before two more Vorcha appeared in the doorway ahead, leaning out from either side to blast me with more rifle fire. "Voya."

Her response was throwing her left arm forwards, omni-tool spinning as an orange disk whipped off of her belt. The incin detonated directly between both of the guards, both of them screeching as their bare skin burst into flames. Both flung themselves away from the blast, probably entirely on instinct.

Shifting my shield and gun into a locked position ahead of me, I finished that just before stepping through the doorway. Which rather worked for the timing, since a ton of enraged Krogan promptly slammed his shoulder into the thick metal, sparks flying from my flat feet as I skidded a good meter backwards.

"Athame's motherfucking..." Snarling, I pivoted right and angled my shield to redirect the rush into the wall. A shotgun blast blew a chunk out of the ceiling as my opponent tried to shift his weapon around my protection. "Thul!?"

His rifle promptly roared as he shifted, the Krogan screaming once again in rage as I tried to shift my own weapon to blast him. Dropping his own weapon, he seized mine with both hands to keep it off of him, growling with the strain and trying to maneuver his bulk to get my shield between him and Thul. Both of us swore, my own a bit more vitriolic than the Batarian's, fighting against the massive alien's strength so that we could kill him.

"Can't get a shot with your asses in the way." Shyeel growled, shifting back and forth behind us.

"Honestly!" An orange disc whipped over my head, the tech mine blossoming into a fireball above my opponent. The explosion drew another furious sound, and drew yet another oath from me as the flames scorched the metal of my armor. "Just fucking kill him!"

"Fine!" Shoving my gun against his throat, I put three rounds through the weakest point of his armor, the orange blood that fountained out not improving my looks in the slightest. "Seriously, I just fucking repainted this Voya!"

"Learn to kill your own targets then!" She shouted back, bounding along the rail line and into the next room without us. There was a quick trio of gunshots, followed by yet another Vorcha howling in agony. Rolling my eyes, I kicked the corpse out of my way before following her through the doorway.

The petite alien rose up from the twitching remains of her kill, sheathing one of the knives back onto her belt. "Room clear."

"So it is." Thul stepped in after me, his helmet turning in a quick survey as I let my eyes flick over the cameras.

There wasn't much to see. Three dead Vorcha, two of them badly burned, another with several slashes to its face. No sign of further targets, and no sign of the Varren that Marcus had seen earlier. "Ayle, next room is clear. No sign of the hounds."

" _I saw at least three of the damned things."_

"Well they aren't fucking here." I growled back. "Shyeel, Voya. Check that door on the left. Thul with me to the right. Ayle we're moving into the next room."

" _We're_ following _you,_ watch _your_ flanks." Her voice echoed in the tunnel, making me shake my head before killing the radio line. "Eclipse is moving up to secure the gatehouse."

So that was what we were in. Filing that away, I lumbered back into motion to cover Thul as he checked the doorway before cautiously stepping outside.

"We have a problem." My lips pursed at his words, stepping forwards to get a better look for myself. "I found the bounty hunter... or what's left of her."

"Yeah..." I felt my mouth go a bit dry as I saw what had caught his attention. "Ayle, we have a problem."

"Thul just said that Cie."

"That's because we have a problem." I repeated once again."Or is it normal for Krogan for behead and skin Asari before leaving the remains stuck to the side of a building?"

"...By the Pillars, are you...?" Her voice uncharacteristically hesitated before she forced herself to speak normally. "I'm moving up, secure the location."

"Yeah." Shaking myself, I made my eyes scan over everything my cameras were showing.

We were exiting into an open dome, maybe a half kilometer in diameter. Our little corner wasn't terribly large, just big enough for workers to assemble before heading back the way we'd just come. As far as the dome itself, warehouses and other industrial crap were packed into it, connected to one another with walkways and sky bridges. It gave us a very nice view of the starscape above the dead world, if nothing else. It was a hell of a lot easier to look at than the purple mess that we were approaching.

They'd staked what was left of her against the wall of the a nearby building, enough blood surrounding the area to make it clear that this was where they'd done what they'd done to her.

"Athame protect us from the storm and guide us to safe harbor," Shyeel's voice was subdued as the four of us stopped beneath the scene, her hands almost shaking. "This is... even for the Pack this is..."

"Yeah." Licking my lips, I blew out a long breath. "Jarick, I need intel on Krogan trophy taking practices."

" _I'll take a look sir. Is it... bad?"_

"Don't ask." Motion in my rear camera made me focus again, seeing squad one emerging from the gatehouse.

"Holy fucking goddamned..." Jack paused just outside the doorway, her head tilting. "No fucking scientist did that."

"No shit." Ayle growled, her fingers visibly tightening on her rifle. "Not even Voya's people go that far. Jarick, push Cie's request aside, we need a map of the local area. New priority is speed, I don't want to-"

There wasn't any warning. One moment Ayle was quite sensibly telling us that she didn't want to stay here any longer than we had to, the next the bow-wave of a biotic charge had flung her and Hesh through the air even as they'd been moving up to join us.

"Fuckin-!" The shouted oath from Jack was cut off when a truly monstrous Krogan slammed his fist into her chest, the momentum sending her flying into Marcus, the pair of them tumbling back into the guardhouse.

Ullak barely avoided a similar fate, hurling himself to the ground and rolling just as the monster fired a claymore with one fucking hand into the space he'd just been.

Snapping my gun up, I opened fire, hammering rounds into the target while I shouted for everyone else to scatter and surround him.

Whipping his head around, the biotic rocked back as my shots struck his barriers, the others quickly joining in with pistols and rifles. That should have been it, more or less. Krogan biotics were tough but we had him less than ten meters away, all four of us pounding him.

But instead of smashing his protection apart in a matter of seconds, like we fucking should have, we only seemed to piss the bloody thing off. Whipping it's gun around, it snap-fired a carnage round that flung Thul to the ground with a curse. Tossing aside the overheated weapon, it paused just long enough to stomp on Ullak's arm as he dropped his grenade launcher and dried to yank his heavy pistol off his belt.

As soon the member of Ayle's cadre howled while his arm shattered, the hulking alien hunched his shoulders forwards. That was the only warning I had before he blurred forwards in another charge, slamming the back of my armor against the wall as my barriers collapsed from the biotic attack.

"Motherfucking-!" Trying to bring my gun around, I could hear the servos and mymor strands straining as the Krogan easily held the barrel away from himself.

With. One. Fucking. Hand.

There was a low, dark chuckle accompanied by another flash of blue light, Voya and Thul both swearing as the former was thrown into the latter when he tried to get up.

"Asari. Batarian. Quarian." It's voice was little more than a ruined growl, tinged entirely with amused. "Weak, but you fight. I will wear your skulls like the little hunter's."

I couldn't help but glance down, finally seeing the blood soaked skull dangling from a chain around his neck.

The sight of it was apparently enough to enrage Shyeel, the Asari letting out a furious snarl as her own biotics exploded. Warpfire roared at the Krogan and I in a boiling blue storm. The second before it hit, a three fingered hand was thrown upwards, a barrier snapping into life between him and the attack. Dark energy clashed in a muted thunderclap, making me wince as my speakers squealed with scratching feedback.

Before he could laugh again, and I could fucking tell he was, I let out a growl of my own and slammed my shield side-ways into his helm. He stumbled back a step but didn't lose his grip on my gun, quickly snapping his other arm around to block another blow before I could hammer him again.

"Goddamned Asshole!" He didn't have time to block the next biotic attack, his full weight slamming me back against the fucking factory wall again when Jack blasted him.

Roaring in rage as his barriers finally broke, the Krogan threw my weapons away from his body and spun around, his body blurring into yet another goddess-damned charge.

Jack got her hands up in time to manage some kind of protection, enough that he didn't crush her like an empty can simply by slamming into her at least. Instead she was driven down to a knee, gasping across the comms as she held both arms above her head, desperately pouring her power into a barrier even as the Krogan simply began to pummel it.

Getting my gun back up, I yanked on the trigger, my heavy rounds being joined by more as some of the others recovered enough to open fire. The heavy plating slowly cracked and shattered, his rush turning into a stumble as the first plume of blood sprayed out.

If anything, that just pissed the motherfucker off even more. Letting out a titanic roar, he brought both fists down to shatter Subject Zero's protection, both limbs striking her shoulders enough to make her scream in agony as she dropped.

"Jacqueline!" Marcus's shout made our opponent's head jerk up just in time to catch a full burst of assault rifle fire to the helmet. It didn't breach the thick plating, but it drove him backwards several steps, stumbling as an hand unsteadily reached up to grasp the side of his head.

"Bring him the fuck down!" I snapped, finally getting my ass moving again, tracing the heavy rounds towards the more broken sections while Marcus did the same on his other side. Orange blood flowed outwards, joined by hunks of metal and flesh as we hammered him, drawing another bellow of pain that grew louder when Thul and Voya finally untangled themselves, their own guns adding to the barrage.

Even with all of that, he still didn't fucking go down, simply staggering back before letting out another roar, gathering himself, and trying to lumber back towards the fallen biotic to finish her.

Shyeel didn't give him the chance, letting out another guttural sound as she directed a biotic strike up and then down at him, the throw slamming the larger alien face first into the ground. "Fucking die you rotted piece of driftwood that's been fucked by silverfish!"

I eased off on the gunshots, the others doing likewise when the Asari unsteadily moved closer, her pistol snapping up as she put a dozen rounds into an opening in his armor. That wasn't apparently enough for her, because she burned with biotics once again, sending even more bloody warp fire into him.

She was bringing her hands around to hit him again before she stumbled, dropping to a knee. "Voya!"

The Quarian was a little unsteady herself, but managed to get over to her, stopping the Asari from trying to get up. Turning away from them, I slowly lumbered forwards, belatedly realizing that Marcus and I were pretty much the only ones upright and moving. Everyone else was either on a knee and panting or prone on the ground.

"Marcus, check for a pulse on that thing! Thul, get your ass over and take care of Jacqueline." Exhaling, I shifted my gaze to my right. "Ayle?"

"Broken ribs." Her tone was clipped with pain. The 'don't fucking ask me to talk again' went unsaid.

Grimacing, I braced myself for being stuck in a command role for a while and nodded to myself. "Got it. Voya, how is she?"

"Not good." She reported, finally getting Shyeel down onto the ground and checking the omni-tool on the Asari's wrist. "She overdid it, her heartbeat is starting to get irregular."

"Motherfucking... Jarick, tell Commander Vethi we need medical evac for team members." A single gunshot rang out, making me jerk against my restraints in surprise before I realized it was just the bounty hunter. "He was still fucking breathing?"

"Yeah." His helmet shook as he cautiously stepped closer, visibly looking for a way to get its helmet off. "One of his arms started to fuckin move."

"Athame's fucking azure... Hesh, Thul, everyone else still alive?"

"Ullak's arm is broken." The former spoke up first, already working to try and set his companion's limb. "Wind was just knocked out of me."

Thul's voice was concerned as he kneeled next to Jack. "Her collarbone is broken.. her armor absorbed most of the impact or it would be worse. By the Pillars, not even Krogan are normally that strong..."

"Thul, focus." I growled, slowly moving to join Marcus next to the body. "Get her up and back into Eclipse territory. Marcus, get over and help Voya move Shy. I'll deal with this."

He nodded, but paused before moving all the same. "What about our target?"

"Plan B."

"What the shit is plan B?"

"What should have happened as soon as the Krogan poisoned this place. Now move your fucking ass." He muttered something that was probably insulting but did so, leaving me to loom over the corpse as everyone else picked themselves off the ground or helped others do the same.

Hefting my rifle up and over my head, I let it clang into place across my shoulders before releasing the grip. After that it was a simple matter of reaching down and seizing the crumpled helmet, tearing the thing off to stare at the Krogan that had almost single-handedly fucking ruined us.

"Fuck." I managed to keep the word quiet enough to not be picked up on my mics.

An older, more visibly modified version of Grunt stared unblinkingly back at me, blood dribbling down from his lolling mouth. His partial crest was riddled with tubes that had apparently been drilled into his head, most of the cords thick with the dull blue glow of eezo. More cybenetics were visible around his neckline, probably working throughout his entire body.

That explained that then. Okeer was already working on his perfect soldier, but instead of dumping off prototypes on a Blue Sun Commander he was giving them to his kin in the Blood Pack for their war. And these weren't simply minded fucks just running forwards to die, this was... I didn't even know what this was. An early effort before he went all biological? A side-project by the apprentice around here somewhere?

Both? Fuck, if the Blood Pack started getting a handfuls, or goddess-damned dozens of these assholes to reinforce their units... this war could get a lot messier for us.

Dammit. Either way I needed to bring the corpse with. Maybe Sederis knew people who might have a better idea just what in the deeps had been done to this thing. Reaching down, I grabbed the body by its shattered armor and hauled it along behind me, heading back towards the gatehouse.

" _Commander Venthi has dispatched medical teams, and your pilot is warming up the engines for a rapid dust-off."_

"Thanks kid." Blowing out a slow breath, I continued on with my grisly cargo. "He on the line?"

" _I am. It would seem I was more right than I believed about what you might find."_

"A surprise we could have done without. I'm going to leave the body with you, send word up the chain of command and I'll see what I can do to expedite getting a team out here."

" _Of course, I will do so as soon as is practicable. Were you able to locate your target?"_

"Nope. You might want to pull your people out of this dome though. And seal the tunnels."

" _Why?"  
_

"How much does a round for a destroyer's main gun cost? Less than two fifty?"

There was a long pause, and then his voice was entirely too amused. " _I'm sure that I have sufficient discretionary funds to cover additional costs if it is not. I will discuss with the Captain of the Final Touch. Assuming she is willing to risk the Admiral's ire."_

"Trust me, she won't mind."

* * *

**Eclipse Communications Server T694-B**

_Line monitored by order of -redacted-_

_User 1– No sir, we haven't run into anything like that that I know of... checking the reports right now. How did your team make out?_

_User 2 – Thanks Washana, and it could have been worse. Three people had broken bones, nothing serious. Shyeel burned herself out on her biotics though, ship's doctor is still going over her nerves._

_User 1 – Goddess, didn't she already have drug damage from dust?_

_User 2 – Yes. I was already warned she might need injections for a few years. Don't ask me how much they fucking cost._

_User 1 – I won't sir. Oh... this isn't good. I found an intel brief that just went live from T'Ravt's people. It says a Krogan 'berserker' just tore apart more than a platoon of hardened soldiers before dying. They didn't retrieve the body, the Pack overran what was left of the defenses after._

_User 2 – Athame's fucking azure. Did not want to hear that._

_User 1 – I'm sorry sir._

_User 2 – Stop calling me sir and don't apologize. Dammit. I know you won't want to do this, but since you're on Illium... I need you to get Sederis's attention for me._

_User 1 - …what do you need me to do?_

_User 2 – Take the after-action I just sent you and that intel report to her. If her guards are annoying, tell them to tell her you have a message from me about the document T'laria gave her. She'll understand._

_User 1 – I... will sir._

_User 2 -I'll owe you a lot of fucking drinks at the bar next time we're both on Omega or Illium._

_User 1 – I'll keep that in mind sir._

_User 2 – Washana, what did I just say about calling me sir?_

_User 1 had terminated the line._

* * *

_**Next up is Interlude IV: Failure to Communicate** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Astute keepers of time might notice that my absence in writing corresponded to the Overwatch Beta... entirely a coincidence I'm sure, and none of you can prove otherwise. Also massive thanks to those who have voted in the poll on my profile. For those that haven't seen it, drop by and cast some votes, it's at the top. :)
> 
> The next chapter will take place after a two-month time skip, and have a scene that I think a few people have been waiting for since Arrival in it. I won't say much beyond the fact that it's going to be rough on everyone involved, and serve as the setup for the next several Operations.
> 
> The next chapter is done and beta'd, so the 12 review count is in place for this chapter. 12 reviews inside of one day gets you the next chapter tomorrow morning, otherwise it will post on Monday. :)
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	17. Interlude IV: Failure to Communicate

_I don't own the Mass Effect._

* * *

**Interlude IV: Failure to Communicate**

_Date: 01-04-2183_

_Location: Omega, Sahrabarik System, Terminus_

* * *

The following two months were... not pleasant, especially since I was now stuck as the combat commander of the team while Ayle healed up. Nor did the fact that Jack, Shyeel, and Ullak had all joined her in needing time off help, as that left me with only four people to work with. Two of whom weren't normally on my squad, and none of whom were biotics.

As a result, we didn't take any major chances. Being far more cautious and less bold during the next pair of hunts, aiming for a boring efficiency rather than fast strike and fades. Both consisted of four of us securing a fire-base from which Voya could snipe out our target from, after which we'd withdrawn to collect our cash without risking becoming further involved in the local fighting.

We at least, didn't run into another of Okeer's prototypes on either run, but at least one more popped up on another of T'Ravt's worlds. This one survived its initial trial by fire, unlike his predecessors, taking out three separate squads before pulling out of the fighting and vanishing even as the locals had tried to pinpoint his location so that one of her elite Talon teams could move in to kill it.

After that things had gotten annoying. With Sederis' campaign bogging down, we'd been set to return to Omega for some much needed down-time. Even those of us still 'combat ready' were fucking tired, and our gear badly needed servicing beyond what we could do in a ship's cargo hold. But when we'd arrived on the damned station we were given the great news that not only had the Nightwind just tried to take out T'Ravt, but confirmation that an SIU team had run down a Reyja'krem down in the station's lower reaches. While everyone else was annoyed about the latter, I was more concerned with the former bit of news.

The Lady Warlord wasn't the only one those psychotic Asari were hunting, after all.

So instead of a week of drinking and taking out time with repairing our battered equipment, we'd been stuck patching everything up while back en rout to the warzones for another pair of operations. Neither was anything remarkable, simply assisting two different Eclipse groups fight off opportunistic pirates trying to take advantage of the war's chaos.

Still, despite a lack of progress on the Krom front, I thought things were going about as well as they could be, especially after the ship's doctor had cleared everyone but Shyeel. She'd... done a number on her already fragile system when her anger had gotten the better of her, and was still contemplating her options as a result. She was dead-set on staying with us as an active combatant, but to do she'd have to make... some rather tough choices for herself personally.

I largely let her do so alone and in peace, not asking for any details about her options and making sure no one else was stupid enough to try and ask her either. She appreciated that, enough that she started bringing me tea when I worked on my armor.

Back on Illium, Nynsi was keeping up with our supply requests, and the author's she was bankrolling had started with their transcripts of our missions. The article on how we'd killed the first of Okeer's berserkers had gotten us into Badass Weekly, a touch embellished of course, but pretty much everything in that mag was anyways. We weren't famous by any stretch, but we were no longer unknown. Which pleased Ayle rather too much in my opinion, especially as we were able to start requesting additional charges on top of the bounty amounts for our services.

Even better, Illyan had finally agreed to join, or re-join I supposed, planning on linking up with us the next time we stopped by Illium, which I was hoping to find time to do on our next set of leave in early January.

Of course, all of that was before there was a full Eclipse commando team waiting for us when the _Final Touch_ pulled into dock. Ten Asari, all in huntress leathers, all making very sure that we weren't about to get past them, though at least none of them had drawn their weapons.

Ayle and I exchanged a slight glance before she stepped forwards, tilting her head respectful. "What's this about? We didn't hear any news on our approach."

"Commander ul Massa." The apparent leader took a half step forwards. "We are to escort Reyja'krem Cieran Kean to a private meeting with our Mistress."

How fucking lovely. "I thought she was on Illium."

A yellow helmet turned in my direction, "Her location is not your concern human. Answering her summons is."

Rolling my eyes behind my own headgear, I made a show of bowing that included a right-leaning tilt of my head. "Lead the way. Ayle, everyone going to Afterife?"

"That is the plan." Her voice was entirely too amused as we exchanged far more polite tilts of our heads. "We'll save you a seat. No, Voya, you need to stay with me. We have to discuss the last mission."

Said Quarian, who'd been about to follow me, rolled her silver eyes behind her mask and growled under her breath. "If that T'laria bitch is here, punch her for me. And if that muscled freak is here-"

"I'm not setting her crest on fire." Cutting her off, I waved a hand dismissively. "Go get drunk Voya. I'll be there in a while."

I hoped I would be, anyway. Meeting with Sederis was never something I was positive I'd be able to walk away from, even though I knew that she was resting on far more of an even keel than she liked to present.

Following my 'escort deeper into the Eclipse's complex, I managed to maintain at least some measure of composure for the first few minutes. I couldn't think of anything new that had happened so far, beyond Okeer's experiments running around, so that was probably what she wanted to discuss. Not that I was sure what she expected me to know about them, but that would at least make it a quick meeting.

We were about halfway to her private residence in the bases's heart when my omni-tool began to flash with an incoming call from Voya, which made me slow to a confused stop. Why the fuck would she be calling me? They'd have barely left to catch a taxi to Afterlife, certainly not enough time to be ambushed or anything like that. Not so close to the Eclipse's fortifications.

I was about to press the glowing icon to accept when an armored hand siezed my wrist, and I found myself going very still as a gun wast warningly pressed against my helmet. "I'm sorry, you aren't allowed to answer right now."

Licking my lips, I nodded slowly. We really were heading towards where Sederis stayed while she was on station, so this didn't seem like an abduction..."May I ask why?"

"Orders, she wants to tell you personally." Well that didn't fucking sound good. The one who'd grabbed my wrist deftly removed my omni-tool, carrying the wrist computer as they resumed marching me on.

This couldn't have been about blowing up that dome on Nevarra, we'd already talked about that by mail. She'd fucking been amused by that, even if she hadn't been happy to find out how the campaign itself had been going prior to that act of pseudo-insubordination. Had we done anything else where she might have gotten pissed at me?

I spent the remaining five minutes of the trip wracking my brain, as a result entirely missing signs that should have been obvious clues in hindisght. Biotic burns on the walls from warpfire, guards and commandos in full armor even this deep inside the fortress, far tighter than normal security that only seemed to grudgingly let us move past without a challenge.

But it wasn't until the outer door to Sederis's rooms opened, and me and my returned omni-tool were shoved inside, that I realized how absolutely fucked I was.

Beyond fucked really. Closer to Athame herself was about to pin me down and do things that would scar me for eternity.

In the center of the room as a single chair, with a well-built Asari hand-cuffed at the wrists and ankles to it, with biotic nullifying bands around each of her limbs and an extra one as a collar around her neck. They'd stripped her down to nothing but bandages that covered a dozen or so minor wounds, and one or two serious ones, but even now some blood had escaped the medigel sealent to stain the cloth.

Oh, and someone had shoved a ball-gag into her mouth, just to top everything else off.

I felt my shoulders slag slightly as I stared, only slowly seeing Sederis lounging on a couch in the background, dressed in something like a golden kimono that showed off a lot of her dusky blue skin. The only other person in the room was a far shorter Asari trying to drown herself in alcohol at a table off to one side, and who was studiously not looking anywhere near me or the one chained to a chair.

"Sederis." Giving her a slight bow, I glanced at her prisoner. "Can I ask why Matriarch Aethyta is naked and tied to a chair?"

Said Matriarch narrowed her eyes at me, a sound like a rumbling snarl nearly making me take a step back as her body briefly flashed before the nullfiiers killed her biotics.

I could only blink in shock. "Did she just... try to _attack_ me?"

"Tried to kill you more likely." The Mistress of the Eclipse corrected, her tone far too amused. "If Gears hadn't sensibly fled here she would be enjoying Athame's embrace right now."

"But why the fuck would she..." My voice trailed as logic beat down the door inside my head and told me exactly why my old boss, friend, and teacher would want to kill us both. "Athame's holy... fuck me... I... fuck."

I needed to sit down. Rather than trying to get to a chair, I settled for dropping onto my ass right where I was. Reaching up, I furiously rubbed at my face, trying to force my suddenly stunned mind to concentrate. I hadn't... fuck. I had half convinced myself it wouldn't happen...

"When?"

"New Years Eve." Trena spoke up, making me flick my eyes in her direction. She was sporting a wicked shiner over her right eye, and her clothes were stained enough to let me know she hadn't changed them in several days. "Not quite what your will had down for the timing, but the rest of it..."

"Was largely correct. A massive warship, unlike anything seen before, lead the attack on the Alliance world of Eden Prime. Its description matches that of your... Reaper." Sederis took over, speaking as she calmly sipped from a glass of wine. "As for the rest, Spectre Nihilus Kryik is dead and Spectre Candidate Kaya Shepard is attempting to lay the blame at Saren Arterius's feet. The political shitstorm is currently occupying the Citadel, all of their news sites are covering it constantly."

If they were, how the fuck hadn't any of us heard... "You killed our ship's extranet lines."

She bowed her head slightly. "I wanted you sober for this discussion."

"...Fair." That had to have been what Voya had been calling about. She'd have seen the news as soon as she checked her omni-tool. "But... fuck. I don't... didn't..."

"You know... I honestly didn't either." The leader of the Eclipse mused conversationally, swirling her wine in its glass. "When I read your will, what that bitch put in your head... some of it I could understand. Perhaps even believe. But the rest, including all of the things about these Reapers... sounded more like a bad vid story than real life. Something put there by Matriarch T'Ravt to advance an agenda of some kind."

I could only blink, and stare blankly at her. Her tone was totally normal, civil even. Not like what I'd expect to hear from someone confronted with the reality of something like the fucking Reapers.

"What? Am I taking this too well, human?"

"I... guess?" Lowering my own head, I could only let my posture relax into a very human slump as I rubbed at my face again. "It's just... the Reapers are..."

"Something that will have to be dealt with." She finished for me, "Something that your memories quite thankfully provide an answer to with the... Crucible? Stupid name, but if it works, I suppose I will have to accept it. As will you, old fish."

Another rumbling noise made me glance back at the Matriarch, her thick muscles flexing visibly as she struggled against bonds.

"She didn't take the news of Benezeia T'Soni's indoctrination well." Jona Sederis continued, her tone turning wry. "She seems to blame the both of you for not telling her with sufficient time to save that whoring bitch."

The chair jerked as Aethyta tried to turn it around so that she could snarl at the reclining woman.

"Oh please, you know it's true." Her head cocked when the Matriarch tried to speak, muffled words fluttering around the thing in her mouth. "Save your breath Aethyta, I'll remove that when I'm good and ready to. Assuming that these two can convince me to spare your life for what you tried to do here."

I winced. "How bad?"

"If she were a century or two younger her stamina might have held long enough that I would have been in serious danger. As it is, three of my bodyguards are dead, along with seven line soldiers. Another three dozen are wounded, and my favorite daughter lost an arm." The Warlord's voice dropped in amusement at the last. "Though the last isn't much of a loss, she was always too arrogant in a fight."

That was the river calling the ocean wet if I'd ever fucking heard it.

"She needs to stay alive." We both glanced over at Trena's assertion, "Her goddess-damned daughter is going to be trying to save the galaxy. If she ends up dead you can't tell me that little T'Soni isn't going to convince Shepard to kill us. You in particular."

Sederis looked less than convinced, but I could only grimace and nod slightly. "It'd be a complication, that's for sure."

The Eclipse's leader rolled her eyes, "Soft, the both of you. Fine, the ancient bitch can survive with conditions. First, we need to have our own conversation."

"Yeah..." Gathering myself, I managed to get my legs under me and slowly rise. "You mind if I have a drink for this?"

A blue hand waved permissively. "Just the one for now, human."

Bowing my head in thanks, I shuffled over the mini-bar next to Trena. Pointedly _not_ looking at her, I selected a Turian brandy I knew I wasn't allergic to before heading over to a chair nearer to the warlord. Collapsing into the thick cushions, I ripped the top off of the tall bottle and took a long pull of the almost mint flavored drink and fought back to the urge to simply down the entire thing.

"So. It would seem that Matriarch T'Ravt was at least tangentially aware of the future." Sederis spoke after taking a small sip of her wine, her lidded eyes looking at me over the glass. "I find that to be far more worrying than the actual events now unfolding."

All three of us glanced over when a muffled tirade came from the bound woman, the Warlord rolling her eyes before nodding to Trena. "You are the one who felt the need to inform her, you can remove the gag."

My former friend winced, slowly rising to her feet. "She has contacts on Thessia and the Citadel that you don't."

"That doesn't make it any less fucking stupid T'laria." I shook my head and took another fortifying gulp of alcohol. "Case in point, she tried to fight her way into an Eclipse base just to kill you. And she fucking _liked_ you."

Trena flinched at my use of her last name, then winced again at the point that I raised. Instead of replying though, she simply limped over to the bound Matriarch and ripped the gag out of her mouth, tossing it aside and stepping back as the older Asari spat on the ground, working her jaw and glaring.

"About fucking time." Aethyta growled, her voice more than a little hoarse. "And you might as well kill me you little bitch."

The Warlord's eyes narrowed in a distinctly dangerous fashion. "Watch your tone Matriarch. Your former employee's point concerning your youngest daughter is the only reason I'm going to let you board a shuttle for the Citadel. If she didn't seem to be important to the galaxy's, and my, survival, I would have already snapped your rigid neck and then dealt with the little bitch if she tried anything."

The snarl that came out of Aethyta's throat would have made me flee if she wasn't tied down. "Don't you fucking even go _near_ Liara!"

"Three other daughters and you obsess over the one you've never even met." Sederis groaned, leaning her head back. "I have no intention of so much as seeing the little archeologist provided she comes nowhere near me."

"If you fucking do I'll-"

"Try and kill us." I cut in. "We get it. Can we get to the part about the Reapers who are going to try and exterminate us all?"

"Shepard and the little T'Soni bitch can worry about the mechanical squids." Sederis seemed far too dismissive for my liking, at least until she continued. "There isn't shit we can do about that until the fucking war is over regardless. Once the Pack has been brought to heel we can begin preparations in time with our recovery efforts."

That was... actually a good point. We couldn't exactly start preparing for another war while in the middle of one that we weren't exactly winning to begin with.

"Time could be a factor." I couldn't help but point out, shaking my head slightly.

One shoulder shrugged, the golden cloth slipping down to further expose the skin a bit at the motion. "Then we will have to deal with the beasts more quickly, won't we? But as I said, that is for later. Matriarch T'Ravt and her... cabal, is the more pressing issue."

"For _you_." Aethyta cut back into the conversation, her voice still little more than a growl. "You fucking expect me to sit back and let all of that shark-shit happen?"

"I don't care what you do." Sederis turned a lazy glare on the older woman. "So long as it isn't in the Terminus."

I winced slightly at the very idea. "She's going to change things."

"Of course I fucking am!"

"Of course she is." The Warlord shrugged again. "But yourself and Krom have already changed quite a few things, in some cases simply by existing. If she wants to try and fail to save her old fling, she can feel free."

"That's a fucking terr..." I swallowed when not that not-quite sane glint returned to her eyes when she glared at me. "I... yeah, why not?"

The grin that Sederis gave me was entirely patronizing. "So glad that you agree."

Giving her an annoyed glare of my own, I took a sip from my half gone drink before flicking my attention back to Aethyta... and tried not to flinch again when I saw her glaring furiously at me. "What?"

"If I can't save Nezzy..."

"Enough!" Sederis rose in a single smooth motion, dark light actually burning holes in her own clothing around her forearms as her biotics flared. "Enough about that fucking bitch, and stop acting like either of these idiots telling you anything would have changed shit. You wouldn't have believed them and probably would have thrown the human in a cell to be psycho-analyzed."

"I could have-!" The three words were all she got out before the Warlord slammed a fist forwards, Aethyta and the chair she was attached to were flung away by the throw, crashing to the floor with a torrent of cursing from the bound woman.

"Guards! Get this bitch on the first shuttle to the Citadel!" The outer door promptly slid open, the same commandos who'd herded me here darting in. "And put some clothes on those sagging tits."

"Wait a fucking moment!" They paused at the shout, all of us glancing at Aethyta even as she craned her neck up to stare at me. "Kid. Your shit said Nezzy is indoctrinated, that's she's basically already..."

"Yeah."

Her eyes narrowed. "There's nothing in your skull on how to fix it?"

My head shook slowly. "She might still be walking around and talking... but she's already dead."

"For your fucking sake Kean that had better be wr-"

Sederis cut off the threat before it could finish. "Oh for the love of Athame, someone shut her the fuck up!"

"Yes Mistress." One of them darted a bit farther in, grabbing the gag before retreating, cutting the torrent of curses that Aethyta was throwing off when she shoved it back into place. That bit done with, they promptly hauled her out, leaving the three of us in silence when the door hissed shut behind them.

Throwing back what was left of my drink, I tossed the empty bottle aside and groaned as my head lolled back.

"Relax human, I'm not that over protective bitch." A hand brushed through my hair, making me flinch as the Warlord breezed past me, curling up once again on her couch. "Now, we have things to discuss."

"Right." I breathed out, letting my eyes close. "So... the Matriarch. And you believe what she put into my head."

"I have no choice but to at this point." She pointed out reasonably. "The vessel that lead the attack on Eden Prime was obviously no creation of the Geth, the Citadel's first reports aside. Everything else laid out in your will has already begun to occur just as you said as well. Saren charged, Shepard investigating... I expect that the next few days will continue to be accurate."

"Yay memory implantation."

She chuckled, a low, dark sound. "Somewhat. Made more complicated by Gear's decision, and however many other test subjects that T'Ravt created. Beyond the ones you already knew of."

"At least the 'chosen one' on the Citadel." Trena spoke up, reminding me that she was even still there. "Assuming there's only one on that fucking station."

"You think there would be more than one?"

My lips thinned. "As much as it pains me to agree with her right now, probably. The bitch... _created_ at least twelve of us already. I can't imagine that she put all of her chips on just one person, even if she has a way of programming memories into our heads."

Opening my eyes, I watched as Sederis leaned back into her cushions, her fingertips touching as she brought her hands before her face. "Logical... if we continue that train of thought, then there are at least five on the Citadel."

It took me a moment to get that. "One per ward arm? I could see that, especially if each of them has a minder to keep them from meeting each other."

The Warlord nodded slowly. "Though I doubt four of them are still breathing, given how she has moved to eliminate yourself and the other prototypes."

Trena and I both grunted, though it was the former who spoke. "She'd keep whichever one was the easiest to control and point in the right direction. Whatever that bloody direction is."

"It's not fighting the Reapers, that's for fucking sure." I muttered. "Unless her clan is suddenly voting for improved military spending?"

"Still pushing to lower the size of the Citadel fleet." Sederis confirmed, her head shaking slightly. "As they have been for the last decade. They've at least stopped trying to down-size Thessia's military."

"That doesn't make any sense though." The alcohol had to have lowered her inhibitions, because Trena had pushed off from her chair again, pacing furiously as she growled. "Even if she's confident in that Crucible thing to stop the Reapers, and even if she's confident that Shepard can do all the crap she put in your head, why the fuck risk it? With as many fucking back-ups as she seems to like, it would make _sense_ for her to fucking bulk up the Citadel's navy just in case."

"Yeah." Dammit, why the fuck didn't I have my pipe on me? "Shit. We aren't going to get answers unless we find T'Ravt or one of the minders."

The Warlord's lip curled. "We'll have to leave that to that old bitch."

I stared at her. "You seriously expect her to help us?"

"I expect her to do what it takes to protect her daughter." She corrected me. "Gears can forward our thoughts to her, after that she'll do what she has to. Leave getting the information she discovers to me."

My mouth opened before I closed it, shaking my head as I decided that I didn't fucking care enough to argue that point.

"Of course, there is still one person who seems to know quite a bit about T'Ravt." Sederis mused, turning her attention back to me.

"Krom." Breathing that asshole's name still brought a tinge of fury along with it. "We were going to take him alive anyway, I don't think Aria would mind if we interrogated him before she has her fun."

"Likely not, provided he is still breathing and capable of feeling excruciating amounts of pain."

Nodding, I shifted a bit in my seat, finally forcing my back to straighten as I returned to my normally rigid posture. "So continue to run with the plans that we already have going. Easy enough on my end."

The Warlord gave me a sardonic little grin. "Easy is not the word I would use Kean, or do you already know where Krom is?"

My lips pressed together. "Point taken."

There was another dark chuckle, though it faded as her tone turned serious. "That old bitch's interference could still cause issues, my remarks aside. It was still a bad idea to tell her Gears."

"You already beat the crap out of me, and my best friend has all but fucking disowned me." Trena growled, still pacing back and forth. "I. Got. The. Fucking. Message."

"Apparently you didn't because you didn't cancel the automated delivery you kept hidden from me." The Warlord's voice lowered as well, becoming lower and even more dangerous. "And now I have to have my people on continuous watch to make sure that bitch doesn't come back to Illium to try and do anything to you. Or Kean."

"You know why I fucking-"

"Yes, we _know_ why you fucking did it." Sederis snarled. "It was still a goddess-damned stupid concept. I could have sent spies to the Citadel, cut deals with gangs, deal with the old family on Thessia. Aethyta fucking T'Voth _didn't need_ to know!"

"She still has contacts that you-"

"Could we please move onto an actual topic?" I interjected carefully, trying to keep my back straight when the Warlord turned her formidable glare back in my direction. "Something we might actually make progress on?"

A blue lip curled, either in anger or amusement, then she nodded slightly. "Gears, you're free to return to Illium. Kean, remain."

Trena looked like she was going to argue, only to snap her mouth shut after a moment. Giving me a glance that I turned away from, I heard her limping footfalls move away. Glass clanked, revealing that she'd probably grabbed more beer on her way out.

And then I was alone with the Warlord. Which was never a fun situation to be in.

"So." Leaning back, I tried not to look at her. "What doesn't Trena need to know?"

"She _didn't_ need to know about your memories apparently, though I suppose your choice in telling her was forgivable. I wouldn't have anticipated her spectacularly poor judgment either."

"Yeah." Rubbing my face furiously with my hands. "Fuck."

There was a long pause. "That indoctrination crap..."

"True as far as I know it. No cure, only a few people who could fight it off long enough to kill themselves instead of being stuck living like that."

The Warlord let out an annoyed sound. "She's going to try and kill you as soon as she fails."

Now wasn't that a fucking fun thought. "Probably."

"Well aren't you grim and fatalistic right now?" Her clothing rustled as she pushed her way off the couch, her bare feet quietly padding over to the min-bar before she refilled her wine glass. "Now, onto our other business."

"Which is what? Hopefully not whatever it is that you're going to do to Aethyta for killing your people and breaking into your base." She glanced over her shoulder at me, an amused smirk on her face. I could only shake my head slightly. "Trena might have been too drunk to realize how quickly you gave in, but I didn't."

"And you don't want to know?"

"I have enough nightmares, even with the damned chehala."

"Have you tried sex?" I gave her a flat stare. "Too soon?"

"You were fucking there when Rane died. What do you think?"

"Too soon then." A quiet hum escaped her as she turned around, making her way back to the comfort of her perch. "It took me more than a decade after my last bondmate, not sure what that is in human terms. A few months? Or is it weeks? Can never remember with your short lives."

"Sederis."

She regarded me over her glass before nodding slightly, accepting the pleading tone in my voice. "I was going to tell you what I intended to do to that old bitch, but if you don't want to know... you're free to return to your unit and get as drunk as you like."

Exhaling, I nodded politely as I rose, fully intending on drinking myself into oblivion. "Thanks."

* * *

_**Alliance News Network** _

_Breaking news from the Citadel, Lieutenant-Commander Kaya Shepard has brought proof to the Council that renowned Spectre Saren Arterius was behind the vicious and unwarranted attack on the peaceful colony of Eden Prime. Acting swiftly when faced with the facts, the Council stripped the once-legendary agent of his status._

_When he fled into the deep Traverse upon hearing the news, they moved further, awarding the woman who brought his heinous crimes to light with Spectre Authority, and tasked her with hunting down and eliminating the rogue Turian. We at the ANN will keep you all up to date as best as we are able as to the progress of her search._

* * *

**Next up is Operation: The Harbinger**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now Aethyta knows, and she isn't happy about it, and it seems rather obvious that she's going to cause problems for just about everyone in the future. Cieran remains rather fucked up mentally, a situation probably not improved by the fact that he and Sederis seem to be strangely getting along... for now anyway.
> 
> We've finally finished what my outline refers to as Phase 1, which was essentially an over-long introduction to warfare in the Terminus and putting a few plot balls into motion. The next 'phase' will be shorter, consisting of two operations and three interludes;
> 
> Operation: The Harbinger,
> 
> Interlude V: The Lady,
> 
> Operation: The Burdens,
> 
> Interlude VI: A New Mission,
> 
> Interlude VII: Scaled Determination.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	18. Operation: The Harbinger I

_I don't own the Mass Effect._

* * *

**Operation: The Harbinger**

_Date: 01-22-2183_

_Location: Battlecruiser Dark Tide, Flagship of Yan T'Ravt, en route to Xentha_

* * *

Shyeel walked beside me as I stalked through the hallways of the massive battle cruiser, more than a little annoyed that I couldn't find the newest member of the Silver Blades. Of all of the fucking times for her to decide to go off on her own, she'd just had to do it the night before we were supposed to transfer to another goddess-damned ship.

"You _were_ the one who stopped me from sleeping with her." My companion reminded me when the check of yet another observation room turned out to be a false lead. "You'd have at least known where she was."

I glowered at her out of the corner of my eyes. "I didn't stop the pair of you from doing anything. Stop trying to change what happened just because you regret not having sex with her."

The scarred Asari sniffed disdainfully. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

My right foot hit the ground a bit harder than necessary. "Stop imitating Voya. By the goddess, it's annoying enough when she does it."

There was something like a giggle from my companion though she was able to school her features into something neutral quickly enough. "What? You're amusing when you're annoyed. Your face gets all pinched beneath the fur and your eyes narrow and you get that little Batarian tilt to your head. Yeah, just like that."

I had to count to ten in two different languages before I trusted myself to speak somewhat evenly. "Are you going to keep evading the subject? Because if you are I have a dozen different things you could be doing right now. Like hauling all of our gear to the shuttles by yourself for example."

"Asshole." She breathed, shifting behind me to let two crew members move past, both of the Turians watching us with bemusement as they did so. "Fine, yes, the new medication is helping. The… sensation is mostly gone from my fingertips. In a good way."

Something like relief helped wash a lot of the annoyance down. "Thank the goddess, after your reaction to the first ones I was worried."

Blue lips twitched a little. "You were worried about me?"

"Yes." I rolled my eyes. "You're _sort-of_ a friend and I'd rather my friends not have phantom pain in their hands."

"You just contradicted yourself, you know that right? Fucking shit! That hurt asshole!"

"Just checking if you could feel that." I twitched a shoulder, pulling my left arm back from where I'd just punched her in the side. "How long on the meds?"

She glared at me but grunted, rubbing her flank. "Nine months, the nerves should have repaired themselves by then. Doctor said to limit my biotics usage to internalized crap, so charges and personal barriers but nothing that would force me to direct energy externally."

I nodded slightly. "That's not so bad then, could have been a lot worse."

"Yeah." Her lips pressed together into a thin line. "It's… fucking dust…"

It was a fight not to wince at that. Now that she was sober, and had been for several months, the personal shame and regret was seriously starting to catch up with her. Especially as the toll the vicious drug had taken from her system became more and more apparent. A mere few months of hard usage had nearly fried her nervous system, to the point where even sporadic biotics had seriously exhausted her, and even caused her physical pain even if she'd refused to show the latter. Overdoing things on Nevarra had done more than exhaust her biotically, it had actually burned several nerves in her hands to a crisp and nearly sent her into shock. Eventually her body's slow-burn regeneration would repair the damage, but until then she'd have to be on medication otherwise feel phantom crap all over her hands and forearms.

Of course most that was what I had inferred from little comments that she'd made here and there. As a general rule Shyeel didn't talk about her drug problem, and I never asked.

"All right. We've checked both of the observation lounges in this section, and she wasn't with that pilot she was flirting with two days ago." I changed the topic, shifting my gaze back to the front. "That Asari crew chief she was flirting with, where was she again?"

There was a long pause before my companion gathered herself, and I felt the fingertips of a hand brush gently against my forearm in silent thanks before she spoke. "Deck thirty I think, assuming her place was where we had that card game."

"Right. To the lifts then."

The one problem with riding in T'Ravt's flagship was its fucking size. Each bloody deck seemed like it was as large as an entire frigate, and it took forever to get anywhere. Especially considering the fact that, like most other dreadnought sized vessels, its internal decking ran parallel to its engines rather than horizontally like smaller ships.

Which meant it had a _lot_ of fucking decks.

Thankfully I'd rarely had to leave the ones we'd been berthed on, focusing entirely on working on our equipment rather than exploring the ship. Or having to deal with the Lady Warlord, who was also on board, leaving that to Ayle. After the latest assassination attempt by the Nightwind, she'd decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and that her palace-fortress on Xentha was safer than her make-shift base on Omega. Since we'd taken several contracts with her, largely caused by my desire to get the fuck away from the Eclipse for a while, we'd been allowed to hitch a ride.

Not that I was burning my bridges with Sederis or anything, but after our last conversation, and finding out from Trena via Washana what she'd done to retaliate against Aethyta… It seemed prudent to keep as much distance between myself and that particular Warlord as possible, without really seeming that I was doing so. I could understand _why_ she'd done what she had, and a tiny part of me was glad that it would keep me alive as well, but… even that tiny bit of approval made me fill disgusting and monstrous on a level that even letting Voya butcher a wounded slaver didn't. I had no faith in my ability to keep my mouth shut about it in front of her, which I doubted would go well for me.

I still kept in touch with Sederis of course, just by mail where I could take my time and choose my words with care. Mostly it was answering her almost-daily questions as she almost obsessively followed Shepard's missions in the Traverse, but at least that was a fairly 'safe' topic. In comparison, working with T'Ravt had been a breeze. One simple mission completed when the ship had discharged above a gas giant had gotten us a nice paycheck, with even larger and seemingly as simple missions in our near future. Even better, dealing with her in person was Ayle's job, leaving me free to focus entirely on work.

Now that we were above Xentha, we were supposed to transfer to a bulk cruiser, joining a relief flotilla heading for the main warfront in the eastern Terminus. Of course we couldn't leave until we found the particular idiot amongst our number who seemed to only think with her Azure.

A few minutes later found the pair of us on the appropriate deck, ticking off cabin numbers as we tried to remember which room it was. It wouldn't have been so hard if our memories of that particular night hadn't been fogged by alcohol. Then again… most of my nights recently were fogged by that particular substance.

"This one I think." She nodded at the next one in line, leaving me to step up and knock.

It took me several pounds before I heard someone shout to stop the fucking pounding. Doing so, I crossed my arms and waited, not bothering to step back from the hatchway.

That turned out to be a mistake when the door slid open, revealing a very naked Asari not more than four inches away. She was a bit tall for one of her species, maybe five eight, with elegant white markings around her eyes and mouth. I couldn't remember her name for the life of me, probably because of the booze. Thankfully she spared me the potential embarrassment by speaking first.

"Kean?" She covered a yawn with one hand. It had evidently been a fake one that was supposed to draw my gaze down to her bare chest, because she looked disappointed when I simply kept my eyes on hers. "Come to take more of my money?"

"No." I sighed, "Your credits are unfortunately safe, we're heading over to another ship. Is Illyan in there?"

"Muscles? No, she left yesterday morning." Something pleased entered her tone. "Shame, I was hoping for another round before my shift."

Reaching up, I pinched the bridge of my nose. It didn't do much to help my state of mind, but it was the principle of the thing. "Do you have any idea where she might be? We've been wandering this ship for a fucking hour already. If we don't find her soon Ayle is going to have a fit."

She hummed for a moment. "Did you try the pilot's lounge?"

"Yeah, nothing."

The officer bit her lower lip in thought. "Try deck nineteen, that's where the shuttle and fighter pilot's actual quarters are."

I tipped my head slightly. "Thank you."

She shrugged, turning her naked back to me as she returned into her quarters. "Not a problem."

Nodding again, I turned and started striding away. The silence only lasted until the hatchway had slid shut behind us, and then Shyeel let out a groan.

"Seriously. Very naked Asari right in front of you and you don't even ogle her a little bit? Are you sure you're a human male? Or you know, alive at all?"

"No, Yes, and Yes." I answered in sequence, not bothering to glare at her. It wouldn't do any good.

"Goddess. It's not like there was anything wrong with just looking. She _wanted_ us to look at her."

I grunted. "I noticed. She probably wanted us to pay her back for the money we cheated her out of."

"Probably." Shyeel agreed, "But I didn't expect you to do that. Fuck, I just expected you to _look_. If I hadn't caught you eying up our Commander from time to time I'd have thought you'd taken a vow of celibacy or something."

My feet abruptly stopped moving, the Asari behind me swearing as she nearly ran into my back. Spinning in place, I stared at her in confusion. "I... _what_? No I don't!"

"Yes you do. You didn't think the rest of us notice… oh. Athame's ass, you don't even realize it, do you?"

Confusion continued to make my brain whirl around chaotically, demanding answers that I couldn't give it. "Notice what?"

"Ayle." She supplied simply. "Whenever she's in casual wear, or sparring clothes, you flick little glances at her."

"No I fucking don't." The denial was reflexive, even as I dredged through my memories frantically, trying to churn up anything to support my point. Instead I found plenty of evidence supporting her assertion, counting up the number of times I'd simply glanced at my Commander when I really had had no reason to. Especially when she'd been wearing things that accentuated her warrior's figure, showing off her strong arms and… goddess, what the fuck was wrong with me?

"It's not like you stare at her or anything, but you definitely _notice_ her. Why are you so defensive…" Her voice trailed off. "Oh. Voya."

If I'd been confused before, now I felt like someone had just slammed a hammer right into my skull. "...what."

It was her turn to blink in confusion, "You...Athame's fucking ass Cie, you can't be _that_ dense. Please tell me you aren't in denial too."

Even though I knew it was a stupid fucking question, I couldn't help but blurt it out. "In denial about _what?"_

The Asari threw her hands up in exasperation, looking like she wanted to beat me across the head for being an idiot. "You and Voya! Obviously!"

"Voya and I... No, goddess, no! I'm not interested in anyone because of _Rane,_ not because I'm saving myself for _Voya_." Even saying the first name hurt, something in my chest spasming at the memory of a demure Batarian woman. "It hasn't even been a year. I'm _not_ interested in anything like that. Especially not Voya or Ayle."

"Then how come you put up with all that crap that Voya puts you through." Shyeel crossed her arms, and I was belatedly thankful that this was the middle of a shift, leaving the hallway empty. "And why do you sneak glances at Ayle when she's doing something that shows off her muscles?"

"Voya is my friend." I replied shortly, anger stirring at her superior tone. "And I did not realize that I was... looking at Ayle that way. Now that I do, I will stop."

Her head tilted. "Why?"

"You know why." My eyes narrowed. "Why are you pressing this?"

"Because you're _sort-of_ a friend, and your smoking has tripled since your little get together with Jona Sederis last month. Don't even get me started on how much you've been drinking, the only thing that's stopped Ayle from slamming you into a wall and demanding answers is that you haven't let it affect your performance." It was a fight not to flinch at that thought. Answers weren't something I could give her, or anyone else for that matter. Not without horrifically fucking up their lives anyway. "I'm not saying you should fuck a random Asari who happens to not care about showing her body off, but Athame's ass Cie. Most of us are starting to worry about you."

"I'm..." I sighed, cutting myself off before she could. "I talk with Voya about it."

"I know, but I don't think that's helping you much anymore."

That much was obvious. "Yeah. Come on, let's keep searching. Not saying we're done talking but we've been standing here long enough."

She nodded slightly, moving back up next to me as we resumed our trek towards the nearest set of lifts. "So."

"So my solution is alcohol." My long hair rustled as I shook my head slightly. "I know it's a shit one but it's letting me sleep at night."

"Mixing chehala and booze isn't exactly good for you."

"I know, but what, you want me to sleep with Ayle instead?" I twitched my left shoulder in a minute shrug. "Even if I was willing to entertain the idea, which I'm not, it wouldn't work."

"Because of Ra-" Her teeth clicked shut when I threw a furious glare at her, my head snapping to the right. "Because of your girl?"

It took me a moment, and a very long exhale, before I could speak relatively evenly. "Not just that. All Ayle would want from me is casual sex."

"Nothing wrong with that."

I turned away from her, slowing as we reached the bank of elevators and thumbing the summon key. I'd done a lot of fucking crap in my very short new life, betraying Rane's memory by jumping into bed with someone wasn't going to join that list. Especially if I was just doing it for sex. Fuck, I didn't even know if I _could_ do casual. Both of my real relationships had been rather serious, and even the likely fake ones in my memory had all been longer-term affairs.

"For you, or most other Asari, sure. For me... I don't think I can do casual. That's why Illyan never ended up in our... or my, I guess, bed."

There was a long, slow groan as the lift arrived. "Goddess. You're one of _those_ humans. Don't look at me like that, there's nothing wrong with spending the night with someone to help keep the deepwater sharks at bay."

Shaking my head slightly, I absently brushed a few strands of hair back over my shoulder as we entered it. "Do you have any other ideas? Preferably ones that don't involve me having sex with someone?"

"It doesn't have to be sex if it's with Voya." Something like her normal, cocky tones returned as she tried to bring some levity back. "Maybe a heavy make-out session would be enough."

Making out with _Voya?_ The very idea made me shudder slightly. Don't get me wrong, at this point I considered her my only true companion, and I had no doubts that shed walk into a hurricane for me just as I would for her. But I hadn't been exaggerating when I said I thought Quarians looked weird. Not ugly per se, but definitely weird. "I'm not interested in Voya."

"Denial." She nodded solemnly, the gesture entirely at odds with her obvious amusement. "The both of you really. She almost threw up when I said she should climb into bed naked tonight to distract you."

"I'm shocked she didn't try to kill you."

"She was too busy reminding me of how ugly you are."

Our lift dinged as it reached our level, but the doors stayed shut when I snapped a hand out to hold down the close button. "Does... fuck this is awkward. You said you weren't the only one who noticed that I'm..."

"That you're what? Checking out Ayle every time she gets sweaty? Hopelessly in denial about Voya?"

I scowled at her. "I'm still your commander."

She snorted. "Fine, fine. I think everyone knows that you and Voya are in denial about whatever your bizarre inter-species thing is. As for Ayle, of _course_ she knows. Why do you think she always spars with her cadre or works out when you're there?"

"Goddess..." Still holding the doors shut, I bowed my head before shaking it, feeling a slow well of disgust. The confusion, and then irritation, had kept it at bay for a while, but now that I was taking more time to think about it...

Ayle wasn't as attractive facially as Rane, or Nynsi, I supposed. But there was absolutely nothing wrong with the rest of her. And sure, she enjoyed teasing me from time to time, and I occasionally reciprocated, but I never noticed that I was checking her out on... fuck, an almost daily basis.

What the fuck was wrong with me? Was it just because it had been so long?

I did some quick math in my head, my stomach sinking slightly at the resulting numbers. The seventh months it had been since Rane's death were, by far, the longest I'd been 'without' that I could remember. Even the time after Nynsi had exiled me had, at least, involved physical contact with Rane in the form of caresses and kissing, even if sex had waited longer.

There was a slow exhale from beside me before Shyeel spoke again, her voice carefully neutral. "Your soul might not be ready for much, Cie, but there's more to you than just that. Your body has desires, instincts, and it's probably been a while for you."

"That doesn't excuse it." I managed, barely, to keep my tone level. "Fuck. I can keep control of myself when there's a nude bloody Asari four inches from me, but a Batarian woman works out nearby and I start...goddess."

"Everyone has their tastes." A hand gently reached up and patted my shoulder. "At least talk about it with Voya some more. She knew your girl, maybe she can give you advice better than what I can. Unless you want to tell me what's going on between you and Sederis?"

My finger finally let go of the button, letting the lift ding open. I didn't say anything as I brushed past a pair of glowering Turian crew-members, both of them jostling me in irritation for holding the lift up. Shyeel trailed behind me, patiently waiting for me to gather my thoughts a bit before I risked speaking again.

I like her, don't get me wrong. She was, as I'd told her, sort-of a friend. I wasn't seriously considering telling her much of the truth, if any of it, but... dammit. I missed Trena as much as I hated to admit it. I missed having someone else I could talk with, someone with a less homicidal view of the galaxy compared to Voya.

Goddess. I missed Rane.

"You don't want to know." I breathed as we turned down a corridor, following the signs. "Trust me. _I_ don't even want to know. I'll try and... talk with Voya more about this, and cut back on the drinking, if you-"

"-stop trying to get you into bed with someone?" She guessed. "Fair enough. Still think you're giant, fur covered idiot, but all right. Now let's go find our lost Maiden and get off this ship so you can go kill something."

I couldn't help but snort. "Most people think killing other people isn't a good way to relax."

"Most people are idiots, and also not Reyja'krem turned mercenaries being hunted by the SIU."

That, I had to admit, was an entirely fair point. And while it might not end up being relaxing, if nothing else I would sure as hell be distracted once the gunfire started. "Wait, you said everyone thinks me and Voya are in denial about each other. Please don't tell me that Thul..."

"Oh goddess no. I don't think he really understands relationships all that well, praise Athame."

"Good." I groaned. "I don't need a lecture about the Pillar of Heart."

"I'm not _that_ cruel Cie. Until he opens his extra set of eyes and realizes how hopeless you both are I'm not saying crap."

It was my turn to snort. "Thanks."

After that we fell silent, following the various icons and dodging crew members as we searched for our target. It took us a while, plus a pair of false-positives with bemused pilots shaking their heads when we knocked on their cabin doors. The third time on this particular deck proved to be the charm, a towering blue figure blinking down at us after I pounded on the hatchway.

"Boss?"

"Illyan." My arms crossed as I glared up at her. The anger helped me not notice how little she was wearing, though at least everything was covered. Mostly. "We've been looking for you for a fucking hour, get the rest of your clothes. We're transferring ships."

She blinked, making me realize that she must have just woken up. "Already? I thought we had more time."

"Yes, already. Now go tell whoever is in there that you're leaving and grab your goddess-damned clothes."

The snap got her moving. I saw her exchange a quick kiss with an exhausted, purple-skinned Asari who hadn't even bothered to get out of her bunk before quickly grabbing the rest of her clothes. Throwing her pants on, she padded out after us, pulling the shirt over her arms as she moved.

Grunting, I spun on a booted heel and headed back towards the lifts. "Next time let us know where you're going."

"I thought we weren't arriving until… yes boss, sorry." She quickly corrected herself when I turned my chest to glare at her again. "Won't happen again."

"He doesn't care that you sleep with people, just that we had no idea where you were on this bloody ship." Shyeel pointed out helpfully. "You could have just joined me and you wouldn't have gotten in trouble."

Illyan blinked in confusion. "I didn't think you wanted me to."

"I wouldn't have minded if Cie hadn't said no."

I twitched at the lie's repetition. "Shyeel, don't give her ideas."

"Oh fine."

The big Asari seemed to gather some of her usual confidence with the banter, her lip curling a bit in amusement. "I think I've got enough ideas boss, but I don't suppose a few new ways to annoy you would hurt me."

"It might." I growled threateningly.

"What? Going to challenge me to a spar boss?"

"Yes." My lip twitched slightly. I'd polished up my hand-to-hand more than a little bit over the last few months thanks to having more than her and Voya as sparring partners. She still had just about every advantage thanks to her massive size and deceptive speed, but I'd added a few rather dirty Batarian moves that she likely wouldn't enjoy, as well as an arm lock that Voya had finally walked me through. "But that's going to have to wait, we need to get back to the shuttles and then get everything ready for the next operation."

Illyan glanced down at me. "Which is where?"

"Kirkwall", I twitched a shoulder. "We're apparently hunting down a Vorcha who isn't a homicidal little maniac. It's smart enough to be in charge of the Blood Pack operations on planet. Few centuries ago it was a major slave port, though these days Omega and the Circle both have larger operations."

There was a deep grunt at the information. "Can we do him like the last one?"

"If he's stupid enough to not have anti-air defenses around his command post, I don't see why not." I shrugged. "But right now I think the plan is more divide and conquer. Thul's handling the actual assassination, along with Voya and Shyeel here. The rest of us are distracting his guard or something."

"Seriously Cie, you could have paid more attention to the briefing." Shyeel snorted.

"I was working on my armor." I defended myself. "I needed to get the ammo-feed working for the shoulder-grenade launchers."

Illyan perked up at the last. "You figure out what was catching?"

"Yeah, the angle was off by a half-degree. I cut it down and smoothed it out, simulations ran fine." Glancing up at her, I grunted quietly. "You're coming to the surface with us."

She nodded slightly, but looked about as happy about that as I expected her to be. "Am I still rear-line?"

"You _want_ to be up front with us?" I knew the answer even when I asked the question. Illyan had never been terribly enthusiastic about fighting, even compared to me. Sure she was capable enough with a gun, and could turn as vicious as Voya if Erana was threatened, but if she had the choice she'd just as soon stick to building and repairing things safely behind the front lines. The injuries she'd sustained on Omega had seemingly only heightened those desires, and my repeated assurances that she wouldn't have to be in one of the main squads had gone a long way to convince her to come.

"Goddess no." She shook her head as expected. "Just wondering boss."

"Relax, I want you armed and armored just in case, as usual, but mostly Ayle and I want you ready in case we need patch-ups in the fighting. Might be stuck-in for a bit." We reached the lifts again as I spoke, and it was my turn to tap the appropriate button. "Come on, let's get our crap and get out of here. Sooner we get these simple missions done with, the sooner we can work on chasing down a target who might know something."

I didn't know it at the time, but I really should have known better than to taunt the fucking universe by calling the mission simple.

* * *

_**Next up is Operation: The Harbinger II** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We get a little glimpse into Cieran's less than balanced mental state as phase two begins, something that will continue to be precarious as things progress. The next two chapters are going to be rather violent and rough on everyone involved, fair warning ahead of time. Kreet does not play fair, but neither do Ayle or Cieran.
> 
> For those curious about the poll, it is still open and will remain so likely throughout this story. As a very, very, very far-off tease, the very final chapter will reveal who is long-term LI is going to be. If the final winner of the poll is not that person, I'll create a one-shot of them spending time together at some point during this story. If the poll-winner is the LI, then the runner-up will get one instead.
> 
> The next chapter is more than fifty percent completed, so the review game makes a come-back. Twelve reviews by this time tomorrow gets the next chapter out, otherwise I'll post it later in the week.
> 
> Current top 3 (apparently you all like the idea of Cie being with someone who isn't mentally stable, going by 1st and 3rd place).
> 
> Voya – 21 votes
> 
> Illyan – 11 votes
> 
> Sederis – 10 votes
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	19. Operation: The Harbinger II

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

**Operation: The Harbinger II**

_Date: 01-26-2183_

_Location: Hightown City, Kirkwall, Eastern Terminus_

* * *

The rocket slammed into my upraised shield, the impact making me swear in two different languages as I fought to hold onto the stupid thing. Alarms shrieking that my barriers were near-collapsing didn't assist in my focus in the slightest, nor did the furious war-cries of Vorcha and Krogan as they echoed outside.

"This is not-" I interrupted my own shout, firing off a single heavy round that turned the Vorcha that had shot me into a bloody mess of body parts. "-going according to plan Ayle!"

"Shut the fuck and up and-" Her retort broke mid-stream as she blew the head off of a snarling Varren that had lunged at her. "-keep shooting!"

Shooting was easy, actually finding the appropriate targets for my oversized weapon was the hard part. Swiveling to my right, and hoping that my commander would both notice my movement and cover my shield-side, I hefted my gun up slightly as I sighed in on new targets; A group of Vorcha, trying to clamber over the wreckage a guard tower in the broad street. Their hissing and yowling voices were entirely obscured by the racket of battle, and if I hadn't had a massive field of vision thanks to my armor's camera's, I might have missed them trying to come through on that side.

The rhythmic _thud-thud-thud_ of my heavy weapon sounded in time with the altogether deeper sound of one of Jack's shockwaves blasting it's way through everything in its path. "That's fucking right assholes! This is my mother-fucking gate!"

"Marcus, help me cover her!" Ayle continued to direct the combat even her shotgun snapped off another round. "Cie, move out to the flank! Hesh, Ullak, ammo count!?"

"Three grenades left ma'am!" The latter shouted back, the pair of them out on the left end of the barricade, manning the only guard tower that was still intact. "Holding them for your command!"

Swatting down the last of my targets, I began moving right, following the make-shift wall as I did so. It was a tattered, rusting thing of sheet metal, wood, and plentiful amounts of omni-gel. Nowhere near bullet-proof but thick and sturdy enough that it would take explosives to seriously breach a hole into. Of course, that was exactly what the Blood Pack had done. The gates had been thrown open, one of them laying on the ground rather than on its hinges, and the guard tower built from and old shop-stand of some kind had been blasted to pieces along with its occupants.

That had been when the remaining defenders had panicked, turned tail, and bolted deeper into the old city, leaving the five of us to stave off a full fucking assault on our own.

I reached the breach in the wall, and the twitching corpses I'd just made, at the same time as the next attempt to enter was made.

This time it wasn't Vorcha, instead a half-a-dozen humanoid figures in bright red armor rushed forwards, clutching shotguns and SMG's in their hands. They didn't panic when they saw me, instead two of them shifted into quick firing stances, while the other four accelerated, trying to get to either side of me before I could catch them all in a tight cone of fire.

Acting more on instinct drilled into me from far too many fucking battles over the last few years, instead of planting my feet I pushed off, breaking into a quick charge towards the ones heading to my right.

The heavy shotgun rounds from their cover-men slammed into my nearly depleted barriers, finishing the job, and were quickly followed by a sound like rainfall as the others opened fire with their lighter weapons.

Ignoring the sparks flying across my vision, I lowered left shoulder behind my heavy shield. Twisting right to wind-up, I heaved the thing hard the other way in a power-drive that would have crushed either of my targets if I'd hit them.

I didn't, they were smarter than that. One ducked, avoiding having his neck snapped my millimeters, while his friend leaped backwards. That was the smarter move, because following right after the shield was the barrel of my gun, whipping around in a club-like motion. I had time to correct its trajectory, and the awful _crack-snap_ of a Batarian spine shattering followed on impact.

By that point I was operating entirely on reflex, wading forwards and swinging both arms in fast, sharp motions to lash out against my enemies. Three rounds turned jump-back into a corpse, while my shield was tucked back against my side to absorb the next pair of hammer blows from solid-slug shotgun rounds. It held, barely, giving me enough time to lance down a third target before the next volley finally shattered it.

I swore, not that I really had room to bitch. The thing had held up for more than an hour of abuse at this point.

Seeing his chance, the final man with an SMG rushed me on the left, a hand pulled a disc from his belt in a smooth motion born of endless practice. He thumbed it to life and threw it in the same fucking movement, giving me absolutely no chance to dodge.

"Athame's fucking-" Jerking my left arm into place, I tried to angle the top half of my shield, the only piece still attached to my arm. I wasn't terribly successful, the high-explosives sending the limb careening into my chest while my ears rang with disorientation that always followed a close-range explosion.

I again found myself thanking Athame that I was wearing the power armor. It insulated me enough that I didn't lose more than a half-second or two, nowhere near what someone without a cocoon of self-propelled metal would have endured.

Case in point, the man who'd thrown the grenade wasn't in good shape. He'd gotten too close to make sure that I couldn't dodge it, and he was down on a knee and obviously mentally checked-out of the fight. Instead of giving him a chance to recover, I shoved the end of my gun against his helmet and pulled the trigger once, then turned back to the remaining pair only to find that they'd elected to retreat.

Snarling to myself, I lumbered up and onto the wreckage, sending a trio of desultory rounds in their wake. I didn't do much besides make them duck around a street corner, but it made me feel better.

"Right flank clear." I snapped into my mic, "I fucking hate enemies intelligent enough to retreat."

"It's a general pull-back." Ayle replied. Her tone made it clear that she entirely agreed with my personal remark. "Status?"

Dropping my gaze, I flicked my eyes across my HUD. "Shield is gone, barriers at five percent and rising slowly. Few minor breaches on my left side, fucking grenade tore a few of the myomer strands but the hydraulics are compensating."

There was a grunt. "T'Donna, get him another shield."

" _Already loading one into a truck._ " Illyan replied instantly.

Another grunt, this one more approving. "Good. Jacqueline, your arm?"

"They fucking ruined my tats." The biotic's voice was little more than a rumbling snarl. "If I knew which one did that I'd piss on his corpse."

Charming. Rolling my eyes, I shifted myself back out of the breach, giving me room to maneuver in case anything shot a missile in my direction. "Illyan, make sure you get Ayle's cadre a few reload packs for their heavy weapons."

" _And medigel for the tattooed human."_ Her voice was amused. " _Fuck boss, I'm not an idiot."_

"Considering the fact that you usually think with your azure instead of your head..."

" _Oh you fucking asshole-"_

"Enough." Ayle cut us both off. "Banter later, preparing for the next wave now. Cie, Jacqueline. I need you to start repairing the barricade as best you can. Jarick, how soon can we expect reinforcements?"

" _The one-twenty-first is trying to get two squads to you."_ The kid's voice was harried, as it usually was when he had too many things to keep track of at the same time. I couldn't blame him for that. I mean, fuck, I wasn't even sure I could do his job. He was simultaneously listening to local intelligence reports, reading said reports, examining maps, listening to us talk with his other ear, and deciding what we did and didn't need to know in order to accomplish our objectives.

It was certainly impressive. If not for how bloody _old_ he made me feel, I'd have stopped calling him kid out of respect that he was able to do it so well." _But the ninety-first is trying to get them turned around, the ones who retreated said you couldn't hold and that it's pointless to try."_

Our Commander let out a rumbling, hissing snarl that made me flinch. "Inform them to get reinforcements here _now_ , even if they have to shoot their way through the ninety-first to do it."

" _Uh... y-yes ma'am."_ He quite sensibly got off the line after that.

Licking my lips, I considered saying something, but when her voice continued to fill my helmet with some rather vulgar curses involving the Ninety-First Regiment's soldiers and how much they enjoyed 'quality' time with varren... I elected against it.

Instead I kept my mouth shut, hefted my gun into its locked position across my shoulders, and started looking around for crap to plug this hole with. There wasn't much to use, really. Hightown City was bloody ancient by Terminus standards, at least five or six centuries old, and was thus largely built of actual stone and concrete instead of being made up of prefabricated buildings or similarly cheap construction. Nice to live in, sure, but it didn't give me much to work with.

Ayle finally calmed down about five minutes later, at least enough to stop snarling at everything and nothing. She stomped over to where I was hauling the shot-up remains of a ground car around, the vehicle groaning in protest as I heaved and hoed. "Will it fit?"

"Should." I grunted, finally getting it spun parallel to the wall. "Might want to stand back for this part."

She did so, and I squatted down as best the exoskeleton would allow. Getting my hands under the carriage, I let out a breath, then heaved upwards. It was fucking heavy, even with the armor assisting me. The HUD flashed yellow on my left side, even as the hydraulics hissed in protest at the weight. Gritting my teeth, I kept pulling, then pushing, and then holding on as the car finally settled itself onto one side, neatly blocking the entire hole.

"Who's..." I needed a moment to inhale before I could speak again. "...on picket duty?"

"Hesh, one block down."

"Not that far out, not much warning time." Not that I would have sent him any farther out, but it was my job to poke holes in her plans. Even if she regretted giving me that job in the first place. "He see anything?"

One of her armored pauldrons might have twitched. "Nothing of note at the moment, but we did receive a message from Thul. A short-burst that Jarick just relayed, they're almost in position."

I tried not to sag in relief. "Good."

The plan, as we'd worked it out in orbit, had been fairly simple. Since our target was as paranoid and cowardly as a skutterfish, we'd ruled out the direct approach. Indirectly killing him via a car bombing or something similar had likewise been ruled out after we'd gotten a better idea of where he operated out of, and just how many defenses his command center had.

So instead Ayle had elected to combine a divide and conquer approach, along with a bit of misdirection. Making sure that our arrival was very public, and our target equally so, we'd grouped up and made it seem as though our only goal was to blast a path straight to him. Once he obligingly sent his personal guard to deal with the threat to his life, our smaller team two would get the go.

Consisting of Thul, Shyeel, and Voya, they would breach the main building he was in via the sewer system, rig explosives to the support pylons, and then get out before the inevitable occurred. If Kreet managed to survive somehow, either of the women would put him down with their sniper rifle, and then get out of there.

Not exactly a complicated plan, really. I hadn't been worried at first. Then... the plan made contact with both our enemies and our allies, and it had promptly floated into a storm to be shredded.

We'd had two real problems after landing. First, we'd underestimated just how quickly he'd throw everything he had at us. Second, we'd overestimated how good T'Ravt's local forces were. The unit we'd arrived with, the One-Twenty-First, was newly mustered but seemed competent enough. They had their own problems though, having some serious issues getting deployed thanks to a logistics team that had never had to try and unload an entire regiment plus its support infrastructure at the same time before.

I was honestly surprised that they had two squads to send our way at all.

"How are you doing?" She asked into the silence that followed. Her posture was one of polite inquiry, taking the sting out of her still irritated voice.

"Nothing got through to me." My shoulders shrugged against my restraints. "Once Illyan gets me a new shield I'm good to go, minus the flak grenades."

"They were well spent, that varren pack would have been an irritant." That was putting it lightly, which was why I'd used up all three salvoes to kill the forty or so rabid hounds that had rushed us. "They're getting better at coordinated attacks."

"Or we're just dealing with their versions of professionals out here. Like those Scarlet Tears fuckers."

Her helmet swiveled as I gestured at the corpses. "More of them. Pillars, I'd hoped we wouldn't see them again after our last mission:."

"Yeah. Fuck, people who aren't Krogan or Vorcha willingly joining the Pack..."

"They aren't exactly losing the war." Ayle reminded me, her voice quieting.

"They aren't exactly winning the war either." I countered softly. "They made some gains but the geth are fucking with them just as much as they are with our side."

Like so much else, that was a bit of an understatement. The Geth, probably thanks to Sovereign, had opened up two full relay chains that had let them blitz through the Terminus and into the Traverse, moving in such strength that Aria could only hold her fleet tightly in Omega's shadow and let them pass without a challenge.

As collateral damage they'd left scattered outposts, supply depots, and patrol fleets in their wake. T'Ravt had lost two small flotillas, and the Blood Pack at least one, and by all accounts the introduction of a third faction into the war was going to cause merry chaos in the near-future once everyone got a better grasp of the situation.

Shit. Even thinking about it indirectly made me feel like I needed a drink.

"Illyan is here." I blinked, realizing I'd been lost behind my eyes as I wondered just how fucked up shit was in the Traverse right now, and if Shepard had gotten to Liara yet or not.

Sure enough, a gaudy yellow truck that had clearly been impressed into service had skidded to a stop, the massive Asari bouncing out of the cab with a flourish. "Delivery boss! Grenades, medigel, and a giant slab of metal."

Snorting, I stared shifting in that direction. Before I could offer any kind of witty retort however, Hesh's gravelly voice crackled across our lines. " _We've got incoming my Tarath'shan. Another wave is three blocks out and closing, I'm pulling back."_

Pushing off, I accelerated towards the truck without a word, Ullak bolting along in my wake while Illyan started to rush to get the grenade packs out for him.

"Composition?" Ayle demanded, already moving back in the opposition direction to get back to the barricade. "Numbers?"

" _Three Krogan, only thirty or so Vorcha. We must have cut down their numbers."_ He hesitated for a moment, cutting off an relief I might have felt at the relatively small amount. " _I think a half-dozen mercenaries are following them, along with another pair of Krogan in black armor."_

I felt my jaw clench tightly as I growled. "Athame's fucking azure, _two_ berserkers? Ayle?"

She let out another snarling growl. "Varren fucking pieces of... T'Donna, put the grenades back into the truck and prime them. Search the dead for any explosives, fuel tanks, whatever, get them into that fucking thing."

"Three Vorcha had flamers, at least." Marcus chimed in, already moving past Jack to dart out of the gate that she'd just finished heaving into place with her biotics. It wasn't fixed of course, more just leaning in place, wedged in with more debris. "I see two of them."

"Ullak, help him!" Ayle snapped. "Jacqueline, cover them and Hesh."

The Batarian male on my right abruptly skidded to a stop and reversed direction, pounding back towards the gate even as I slowed to a halt next to the vehicle. Snapping an arm out, I heaved the replacement tower shield out of it's bed, using my right arm to help fasten the thing into place. For her part, Illyan had already tossed the grenade pouches back in, and was rushing over to where several allied soldiers had fallen when they'd run.

"We let them gain the gate and fling a car bomb at them?" I hazarded to guess even as I finished, turning to head back to the barricade. "Timing is going to be a bitch."

"I'm aware." Our Commander agreed, her voice low. "I want you to focus on the berserkers. Try and drive them off at range before they fall into the blood rage and rush us. This can't be their last wave, and Thul still needs more time. If we don't have to detonate yet..."

Exhaling, I nodded inside the confines of my armored box, forcing my voice to remain level when I replied. "Will do."

Pushing off, I moved back in her direction, stomping my way towards the barricade. I reached the gate at about the same time as Marcus returned, cradling a flamethrower's fuel tank under each arm. Biting my lip, I flicked my gaze left to the remaining tower, then grimaced as I realized that it wouldn't be able to hold my armor's weight.

Which left me with just one bloody location I could properly site myself in order to follow Ayle's instructions.

She realized it about the same time I did. "Hesh, Ullak. I want you back on the tower. Jacqueline, Marcus, move the right side of the gate and cover that side. Cie and I are moving into the open."

Lovely, but at least she was willing to stand out there with me. Not bothering to say anything, I simply lumbered onwards, moving past Jack as the armored woman waved a hand and sent the gate groaning as her biotics pressed it to create a larger opening.

"You sure you don't want us out there with you?" Jack asked as we moved past, barely seeming to pay attention to the half ton of metal she was throwing around with her brain. "Your asses are going to be in the fuckin' breeze."

"No, stay in place and cover us. We'll definitely have to retreat sooner rather than later." Ayle replied, ducking behind me as Hesh and Ullak moved past, both carrying fuel tanks and handfuls of grenades they must have taken from the dead from the prior waves. The former was slightly stooped, and I could tell he was fighting not to audibly pant. His partner wasn't that much better off.

Batarians aren't much for long-term endurance, and we'd had a busy few bloody hours. Shit, the only thing keeping Ayle's back straight was probably the small mountain of pride in her chest. She'd sooner kill herself than let any of us see even a momentary bit of personal weakness on the battlefield. Or at all really.

I didn't care to step out into the open, even wearing power armor. That Ayle followed in my wake, shifting into place on my left where my shield could cover both her as well as me didn't overly make me feel any better.

"Round... what wave is this again?" I asked quietly.

"Five." She grunted, some of her exhaustion coming through her short tones. "Thul is getting close. One more, maybe two."

"Yeah." Air whistled between my teeth, my vision flickering as the cameras detected motion in the distance. Small figures moving rapidly down the broad street, sticking close to the sides where they could dive into buildings or down side-streets for cover. Smart. Annoyingly so. "They're coming."

Leaving her shotgun on her back, she pulled her assault rifle out and let the weapon expand in her hands. "Send them to the Pillars, Cie."

Grunting, I shifted my gun's barrel into the notch in my shield. Shifting both arms in time, I let the targeting rectical drop onto one of the darting Vorcha in the distance. Exhaling slowly, I flicked my eyes left, nodded minutely to myself, then opened fire in a five-round burst. Three found targets, sending an equal number of targets tumbling down. Dead, wounded, or just diving for cover, I couldn't tell at this range.

Not that it mattered, any of those suited my purposes right now.

The woman on my left opened up on her own targets a few moments later. Her bursts were shorter, more carefully controlled than mine. Probably because she actually needed several direct hits to wound or kill a target whereas I only needed one.

Ullak and Hesh had apparently reached their guard post once again, because their rifles started chattering a few moments later. More Vorcha dove and tumbled, but not all of them were dead. Retaliatory fire began to snap in our direction. Nothing that seriously harmed my shields, but Ayle grunted when a few well-aimed shots slapped against her barriers, making her shift a half-step behind me.

Things got serious about twenty seconds later, when the mercenaries and Krogan moved up enough to see what was happening to their vanguard, and to give the appropriate instructions.

Seven or eight grenades whipped through the air, exploding in fitful spurts of smoke that quickly obscured our view of the targets. Glancing upwards and around, I cursed when I saw a cloth flickering with the wind that was heading directly in our direction.

Ayle noticed as well, her own oath following a millisecond behind mine. "How many?"

"No more than a dozen."

"Desert eating..." I didn't need the commentary to be aware that we hadn't dropped enough.

"Shift right," I advised, "I need room for my arm."

She did so, taking cover behind me. "Incinerates?"

Rather than reply with words, I let my left hand release the handle to my shield, letting the bolted strap around my forearm carry the thing's weight. Once my fingers were free, I shifted them to flick the omni-tool built into the armor to life, the limited device quickly whirling as I called up the program I hadn't had to use in a while.

Between Voya's tech mines, Thul's grenades, and Shyeel's biotics I hadn't honestly needed to use my own incineration bombs in a while.

Letting the VI handle most of the angle and range calculations, I impatiently bit my tongue until it chimed that it had everything ready. Snapping my hand in a new gesture, I watched as the tech launcher on my armor's left hip whirred as orange discs began to whirl outwards as fast as the little thing could charge itself, about one every three or so seconds. They shot up into elegant arcs, seeming to hang in midair before diving into the rolling wall of smoke maybe two hundred meters away.

Flashes of fire began detonating in the dark air, hopefully killing or at least stunning some of the likely onrushing enemies. I couldn't fucking see because the damned smokewall was growing in a way that the wind couldn't be responsible for, more of the grenades detonating to expand its coverage.

"You can't see through it?" Ayle demanded the moment my impromptu artillery barrage ended, the tiny launcher having exhausted its supply of mines.

"No." I growled, flicking my cameras through a few vision modes. "It's... shit, there's some kind of fragments that's almost... _shit_ that's bright. Sorry."

"Dammit. Jacqueline?"

"You're fucking joking right? That's a _lot_ of smoke and that shit ain't all that close. I'd have to be damned near in it to make even a dent." We'd need a lot more than a dent, and from her tone she knew it.

That left us just waiting for the smoke to clear, or for the Pack's forces to burst out out of it. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the latter happened first.

According to the armor's VI, the trailing bits of smoke ended approximately seventy-two meters away. By the standards of modern weaponry, that was as good as point-blank range, something that proved to be entirely true when the leading Vorcha sprinted out of the rolling fog, wisps of it curling around them in a way that struck me as vaguely demonic.

Five of us opened fire with our guns the second our nervous systems finished informing our brains that we could see them.

Focusing entirely on my own narrow section of the fight, I kept my gaze right, trusting the others to focus on the center and left. I had to fire my weapon one-handed, leaving my shield to cover Ayle. My first shot went high and wide, drawing a curse from my throat, correcting my aim so that my second took the head off a Vorcha trying to force Ayle behind me with bursts from its rifle.

Rounds three and four tore down another target as its rounds sent skittering sparks off of my blocky shoulders. Round five was sufficient to drop another before it could get close enough to use its flamethrower on any of us.

I was only vaguely aware of Jack darting out of the gate and behind me, her entire body glowing furiously with biotic light before a lance of warpfire was hurled from her outstretched arm. I didn't see the result, because something utterly massive surged out of the dissipating smoke, it's head lowered as it pounded forwards.

"Berserker!" Marcus shouted, seeing it at the same time I did.

"Hesh!" Ayle barked even as I swung my gun into line. There was enough time before her cadre reacted for three heavy shots that ricocheted off of shields that made me swear. Of course he actually bothered to have fucking shields.

After that, the first propelled grenade whipped in a flat-trajectory over us, slamming into the ground right in front of the enhanced alien. Grenades two and three were more on target, making the alien let out a glass-shattering bellow of pain. He stumbled, fell, rolled, and somehow managed to gather his feet in the same motion, resuming his lumbering charge though now at a different angle...

...which let his companion, who'd been shielded from the blasts by his friend's body, accelerate right through the area he'd been occupying.

"Athame's mother-fucking azure." I snarled, "Ayle!"

Ayle might not have the same instinctive rapport with me that Rane had once had, but she wasn't stupid or slow. If we stayed where we were, one of the berserkers was going to slam right into us, while the one now on my right had ample time to flank us. Jack might have been able to help if she wasn't using shockwaves and streams of warp-fire to keep several mercenaries and Vorcha at bay on our left. If she stopped doing that to help me, there was no way that Ayle and her cadre could hold them off.

We had two options, and Illyan hadn't reported that she was ready with her truck bomb yet.

"Go!" She snapped.

I fucking hated this part. Always had, always will.

Staring down the super-charged Krogan furiously sprinting at me, I sucked in a long breath, hefted my shield in between me and him, and then started moving.

 _Towards_ the berserker.

Ignoring the idiots taking potshots at me from the left, most of which simply smacked into my shield, I opened fire at the same time as my new opponent. His shotgun roared in time with my cannon, my barriers shrieking in protest even as I put shots into his. Far off to my right, I was aware of the other berserker trying to skid to a stop, visibly stunned at my course of action. Behind me, Ayle and Jack were pulling back to the gate as Marcus covered them.

Then my attention was focused entirely on the thing in front of me. The fifty meters between us became forty. Then twenty. Then five.

And then we slammed into each other at full speed.

The impact of nearly a ton of metal colliding with an equal weight of flesh and armor was titanically loud. His reinforced helmet drove a massive dent into my shield while my gun slammed into his stomach, orange blood exploding out as I yanked the trigger. Then arms were snapping down to drive my weapon out of its gut before I could do more, using his own weapon as a club to do so.

Snarling, I let my fingers go limp, the cannon flying free, then snapping my hand out to wrap around his shotgun before he could return the favor. At this range he'd at least shatter a plate, exposing me to a second round that would assuredly kill me.

Wrestling with him directly was probably a losing proposition, if he was anywhere near as enhanced as the last one I'd fought with. So instead of trying to yank the weapon away, I simply shoved it to one side, using his own motions to over-propel the weapon down and to the side.

Then it was his turn to surprise me. His hands let go of the weapon, letting it clatter to the ground, and then the brawl got seriously started.

Fist rang against my armor plating as he struck me, his fingers grasping, trying to find purchase where he could tear at me. The grenade launcher on my right shoulder shrieked as he tore one of the tubes free. A bellow tore at his throat when I retaliated with a punch to his bleeding gut. Redundant nervous systems or not, not even Krogan liked being struck in open, bleeding wounds.

Jerking my shield around, I slammed the metal into his head to stun him, driving him back before quickly throwing a pair of right-handed jabs where it hurt. His blood rage seriously got going after that. Fingers seized the edge of my shield hurling it aside with a casual ease that made my arm spasm in pain even as the already damaged myomer and hydraulics shrieked in metallic protest. The bolts and straps that kept it on my arm sheared as he hurled it aside.

Which was rather stupid of him, I'd have hung onto it and used it against me.

Even if my left arm protested the motion, I quickly jerked the limb back around in a high punch at his head. He rage-enhanced reflexes were enough to catch the blow on his fists, another snarl emitting from his helmet, but the block prevented him from seeing the right cross that I slammed across his armored face.

Then I shuffled back, opening the range a bit. Krogan, especially Okeer's enhanced psychopaths, were ridiculously strong, and as durable as the fucking Pillars themselves. But they had short arms proportional to their size, and I was a lanky person whose long limbs were further enhanced by the armor I was wearing. If I could keep him at a distance, I could dance around him and hammer him down until his armor breached. Then I could snap his fucking neck and throw him to Jack to finish off.

It was a good plan. Too bad it didn't survive contact with berserker number two.

The other Krogan hit me in a flying tackle, obscuring his approach by not firing his weapon. I'd been so focused on my immediate opponent I hadn't even noticed him coming on, letting him hit me high.

I went down in a titanic crash of metal as my body bounced against my restraints, my vision swimming thanks to my skull rebounding off the side of my armored box. Having had plenty of experience in the sparring ring when Illyan would get me down on the ground, my arms worked on auto-pilot, snapping up to protect my head before he could punch it.

Or shoot it, my forearms slamming against my protection with another ring of metal when a shotgun blasted the plating.

My active head was still whirling and trying to gather itself, thankfully my subconscious was entirely focused on the sensible priority of survival. It sent my body into a bucking roll, throwing the second berserker off of me as I found myself on all fours, trying to shove my heavy weight back to its feet.

Berserker number one had no interest in letting me get up, a vicious kick sending me back over to crash onto my often abused left side.

The fuck-up followed. On his part, thank Athame.

He drew back his leg in a second vicious kick, intending to stomp on the armor over my head, probably to crack it so that his companion could shove his gun barrel inside to kill me messily.

My eyesight snapped back into clarity as I snapped my right arm out to seize his upraised ankle. Hauling with all my strength, I brought him down onto the ground beside me. Yet another fucking shout made me snarl in annoyance that this fucker _wouldn't shut up_. Seriously, we were trying to murder each other, the least he could do was do it _quietly._

Growling, quietly, I shoved my left arm across the ground to seize his helmet, and then I rolled to my right and hurled the son of a bitch away from me.

I'd based my armor's design on a construction model exoskeleton. He went a good ten meters, struck with the ground hard enough to break the arm he futilely tried to brace his fall with, and then rolled into a pair of Vorcha who'd been rushing our way with freaking flamethrowers.

Somewhere a woman cackled, and then a lash of biotic power slammed into the downed creatures, detonating their fuel tanks. I had no idea if Jack's opportunistic strike killed the berserker or not, but he sure as fuck was out of the fight for the moment.

I finally managed to get to my feet at about the same time as berserker number two, the Krogan still bleeding from the dozen small wounds the grenades had given him. I had no idea where my gun or shield had ended up, and at some point my coolant lines to the former had snapped, leaving glowing blue liquid splattering on the ground at my feet. He still had his shotgun, which was problematic.

We didn't say anything to one another. Didn't snark, didn't curse, didn't banter. It just... didn't feel right. I couldn't tell you why, even now. In any other situation I would have scoffed. I hated anything like a fair fight, and would just have soon seen Jack kill him while I retreated.

We just eyed each other up through our helmets for a long moment. Then, he gripped his gun, I tightened my fists, and the fight resumed.

Shotgun rounds slammed into my armor, denting plates and springing others loose. Fists slammed into his more conventional gear, doing the same once I'd closed the distance. The fight became something primal, my hands grasping for his weapon, to tear it from his hands even as he fought to properly aim it at one of the weak-points in my defenses.

He was stronger than me, even with the armor, but he was also wounded. Tiring. Krogan regeneration was incredible but it took energy, sapping at his strength even as it repaired him. And each time I struck him I struck a wound on his body, worsening it. His retaliatory gunshots, punches, and headbutts only struck the armor preventing him from crushing my comparatively frail body.

The end came when he threw a punch, exhaustion robbing too much of the blow for it to knock me back. Seizing his claymore with both hands, I ripped it from his other hand, using an elbow to drive him to his knees.

Then the barrel of the weapon was shoved against his neck, and I was pulling the trigger.

I stared at the corpse for a long second, something irrational yelling at me to blast it a few more times just to punish the dead thing for hurting me in the first place. Shaking off the thought, I snapped my eyes up, only now remembering there was still a fight going on.

Or at least, there had been.

Even as I watched the remaining members of the wave were falling back, but doing so in good order that would have made me grit my teeth in annoyance if I wasn't so bone-shakingly tired.

" _Cie_." Ayle's voice crackled from my speakers. " _Get your pale ass back here."_

Oh, right, I was way beyond the fucking barricade.

Grimacing, I tossed the shotgun onto its owners corpse, shuffling backwards so as to not turn my back on anything that might shoot it. I stopped to grab my battered shield and gun as I passed them, only half-listening as Ayle got a sitrep from everyone else.

Jack was on the ground, barely conscious. She hadn't been hit, she was just that fucking tired. Hesh and Ullak sounded out of it, apparently a near-miss from a grenade had knocked them both around. Ayle was only upright because she was clutching at the barricade and trying to make it seem like she wasn't, which really just left me and Marcus as the two who were upright and moving.

Well shit.

"Marcus," Our Commander was saying as I approached, "I need you on picket duty. Soon as they start coming again, you'll be the one to guide the truck in."

"Got it." He rose to his feet from where he'd been helping his lover guzzle down water, only to freeze when he saw me. "Fucking Christ Kean. You're still alive in there?"

"Mostly." I replied, trying not to notice how much red was covering my HUD. Nothing vital had been hit, but the armor plating was a sieve. "Ayle..."

Her helmet tracked me for a moment before she nodded tiredly. "Get it over into cover, then egress and lock it down. Then I need you back here, team two is just reaching their target now, but Jarick says there's still at least half of Kreet's personal guard in place. We need something to draw them our way."

I didn't bother arguing with her. From her tone she knew how likely it was that we'd be able to make that much of a mess. Fuck, we'd be lucky to hold out against the next wave even if the promised reinforcements showed up.

In all probability, Thul, Shyeel, and Voya were on their own. All we'd be able to do was hope they succeeded, and do our damnedest to survive the next hour.

* * *

_**Next up is Operation: The Harbinger III** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And a massive fight scene that was... interesting to write, I'll go with that word. The first six or so pages flowed, after that it got a bit harder but I think it turned out all right. Hopefully you all agree and are looking forwards to the next chapter where... well, let's just say it's been too long for something.
> 
> After that we'll get what I'm hoping is a nifty little interlude that will expand on Cieran's growth/continuing fall, as well as revealing a bit of how other people in the Terminus view him. Which is going to be rather important for the chapters that follow, to provide a contrast of opinions.
> 
> Hopefully that's all vague enough for everyone. :)
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	20. Operation: The Harbinger III

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

**Operation: The Harbinger III**

_Date: 01-26-2183_

_Location: Hightown City, Kirkwall, Eastern Terminus_

* * *

" _Confirmed ma'am."_ Jarick reported, his voice containing an odd mixture of worry and approval. Approval because the plan was working, worry because the plan was working. " _Kreet has sent his remaining reserves to join the attack on your position. It's become the fulcrum of the battle thanks to the Ninety-first falling apart."_

I wanted to rub my face, but my helmet made that impossible, so I settled for groaning. "Of course it is. What happens if they move through our position?"

" _The One-Twenty-First has managed to fort up in a park and a slave market a few blocks on either side of you. Both positions could easily be flanked, or encircled entirely by use of the main boulevard you're holding."_ He paused for a moment. " _Colonel Kaste says his unit will be there in ten minutes, and that he's offering his entire discretionary fund and whatever he can steal from the Ninety-first as payment. He can get a full company there in another thirty."_

Ayle grunted, the sound one of acknowledgment rather than one of pleasure. Money wouldn't do us any good if we weren't alive to use it, and thirty more minutes was an eternity in a firefight. "Time until the next wave? And did the second berserker survive?"

" _Fifteen to twenty... they're communicating about some kind of back-up plan being put into motion but no details. And yes, and he's furious that Master Kean killed his brother."_

Lovely, nothing like an enhanced Krogan with a vendetta, but if his timing was accurate it at least lowered the amount of time we had to hold to ten or fifteen. "Keep us updated kid."

" _Yes sir._ "

Shuffling over to Ayle, I stood beside her in the gate, half-watching as Marcus carefully advanced in the distance, darting from one piece of cover to another as he did so. "You all right?"

The woman on my right shrugged minutely. "I am uninjured."

I sighed at the pure exhaustion in her voice. "I wrenched something in my right leg. Would you mind terribly if I leaned on your shoulder?"

She was silent for a long moment, then twitched her head into a silent nod. Stepping close, I shifted my weight as if I was leaning against her side. Ayle didn't do anything for a moment, then her own balance adjusted to send nearly all of her own mass against me as she fought not to simply sag.

We were both silent for nearly a minute as I let her relax, then she spoke quietly enough to not activate her helmet's mic. "Liar."

"It was either lie or watch you collapse." I muttered back. "You can't say you're surprised."

Something low and pleased sounded in her throat, and I felt even more of her weight subtly press against me. "No, though your understanding does take me aback from time to time."

I resisted the urge to snort, barely. "You all right? Besides the exhaustion."

"The exhaustion is enough." There was a slow groan. "You don't sound that bad."

My shoulder on her side twitched. "Pulled something in my left arm, it's more annoying than painful. Tired too, but getting my second wind. I'll be fine by the time the next wave gets here."

"Sand scoured human..." The curse lacked any real heat. "I hate your Pillars damned endurance."

This time I did snort. "Jealously is unbecoming of you."

"I am not jealous, simply stating that I despise your species' only remarkable trait."

"I thought it was our hair."

"Yours, at least." Another pleased sound was followed by a groaning sigh, "As much as I would like to continue to allow you to lean on me, we have work to do."

Grunting, I nodded and slowly leaned back, letting her take her own weight in her own time. Armored fingers brushed against my forearms in a silent gesture of thanks, and then we were turning back, minds whirring as we went through our options in our heads.

"Can't patch the armor fast enough, but I might be able to mount the cannon on the tower and rig a new coolant line." I spoke slowly at first, then more quickly as I worked out what I'd need and how quickly I could do it. "I won't have room for your cadre up there but it'll give me a position to cover the entire street with."

"Do it, I'll move them to the gate. Take Jacqueline with you, she can shield you with a barrier if any of the Scarlets have a sniper. And it will give her a higher position to aim from." My head dipped in acknowledgment. "Go, get it done. I'll supervise T'Donna."

The next sixteen minutes and thirty seconds passed in a tired blur of activity. Illyan paused working on the truck long enough to carry the cannon over to the guard post while I hauled the spare container of coolant off my armor's back, along with a few long lines of tubing along with my smaller toolpack. Jack watched as I worked, energy bars vanishing into her mouth as she tore at them like a starving animal, downing an entire box of the damned things in the first ten minutes.

She did at least help me balance the weapon while I cut a slit into to the posts's chest-high wall, measuring it out so that I could use the wall itself to rest the weapon against. After that it was getting the coolant feed repaired, and half-watching as our reinforcements finally showed up. There were twenty or so of them, mostly Turians with a few Batarians. Though oddly enough a Terminus Quarian seemed to be in charge, the short, broad-chested male conversing with Ayle before starting to shout orders through an armored mask not dissimilar to Voya's.

By the time Marcus called back that he could see movement, we'd managed to fortify our position about as well as we could given the circumstances. The others had piled rubble near the car I'd shoved into the gap in the wall, letting a light machine gun team rest their weapon on top of of the wrecked vehicle. Our flanks covered, everyone else had torn what was left of the gate down, breaking the doors into pieces to create make-shift fire-pits just outside of the barricade. Ayle and the apparent Lieutenant moved into those, along with her cadre and a few troopers. The remaining troops took a page out of my book, setting a pair of cars into neutral gear and shoving them alongside the barricade before locking their brakes. They weren't exactly steady, proper fire-steps, but it let them see over the battered wall enough to contribute.

And then the fucking Blood Pack changed the rules again.

The yelping, cackling howls of varren echoed across the city. I flinched at the noise but didn't feel particularly ashamed at doing so. Pretty much everyone else, including Jack, had done the same. It wasn't a sound that you could just brush off, no matter how tough you thought you were, sooner or later primitive instincts had their say.

"More varren." I muttered, "I fucking hate fighting varren."

"Shut it asshole." Jack growled, "You usually fight them inside your fucking walking tank."

Which was a fair point. To me they were an irritation, a very, very _annoying_ irritation. To everyone else they were actually a deadly threat, with jaws that crack armor and saliva that had enough bacteria and viruses in it to cause major complications if the shit got into your blood, almost regardless of species.

"Marcus," Ayle spoke into our comms before Jack and I could seriously get a snark-fest going. "Report."

" _A lot of movement maybe two blocks down, near the barricades they setup in the park. A lot of fucking movement... wait one."_ There was an annoyed growl from our Commander, making me smirk a little. The grin faded when Marcus spoke again, his voice shifting into the alarmed cadence of someone at a full run trying to force important words out as he moved. " _Shit. There's a fuck-ton of slaves being pushed our way, they've got vorcha and varren herding them!"  
_

I blinked as my brain's sails were withdrawn, leaving me blinking at nothing in particular as I tried to process that. "What the fuck are-"

Marcus cut me off impatiently. " _They're wearing the heavy collars, the HE ones."_

Oh.

Oh _shit._

"How many?" Ayle cut in, her voice alarmed but focused. "Radius on those collars?"

There was a tiny pop as the local lieutenant joined our conversation, my translator turning his Khellish into thickly accented Thessian. "If they're the usual Blood Pack models, basically a pair of frag grenades wired together."

Double fucking shit.

" _Can't give you numbers."_ Marcus reported after a moment, just long enough for him to glance over his shoulder. " _But there's enough to fill the street, with a fuckton behind them."_ His voice turned harder than I'd ever heard it. " _There's fucking children in the crowd."_

I edged a bit to my left as dark energy began to ripple across Jack's arms, trying to work through our options as I did so.

We didn't have many.

The 'good' thing to do would be to divert them somehow, maybe onto a side-street, but I had no idea how we could accomplish that with the time and materials we had on hand. Retreating wouldn't get us anything, besides breaking open a huge hole in the defenses and letting us die somewhere else instead of right here. Nor did I think that we could find whatever frequency the collars were keyed to and jam it somehow, we just didn't have the equipment.

Goddess. Even if we did that might have just set all of the stupid things to detonate instead of deactivating them. And if Kreet and his Krogan subordinates were smart, and I didn't doubt that they were, they probably had the things keyed to detonate on reaching a certain range from where they had been corralled. Which meant we probably had a mob of unwilling suicide bombers sprinting right at us in panicked flight, rabid varren on their heels to keep them moving. And right behind them would be the main force of Krogan and Vorcha, ready to exploit whatever crap option we took.

Triple shit. They probably expected us to open fire as soon as we had line of sight, which would be very, very soon if there were any Turians in the mob. While most of the Warlord's troops probably wouldn't be overly bothered at the necessity, it was still a problem because of the volume of numbers likely involved. They'd have to go to full auto, keeping their weapons near overheating in order to keep the mob at bay. That would leave them hideously unprepared when the Pack moved up, but they wouldn't have a choice. Even a few of the explosive collars might break down the ragged barricades, and if enough slaves reached us we could start taking casualties in a real hurry.

Ayle made her decision before I could voice any opinions, or spend anymore time trying to find a solution. "T'Donna, start the truck and prime the detonators. Marcus, how close?"

 _"You've got maybe a minute!"_ I could see his sprinting form now, emerging from behind a crashed bus as he ran for our make-shift lines. " _What's the plan!?"_

"Detonate the truck in the main group." Ayle's voice was flat and hard. "Kill any survivors that try to move our way, hold the Pack off until reinforcements get here."

 _"_ You can't fucking-!" Jack began.

The Batarian woman cut her off. "If you have a better plan to keep us alive tell me in the next twenty seconds!"

"There's fucking kids-"

"I am _aware!_ " Ayle snarled. "Ten seconds! T'Donna, slave the truck's VI to my omni-tool!"

More movement in the distance drew my attention away from anything else, figures appearing in the dusk sunlight as they drew close enough to become distinct. Marcus had been right about a few things it seemed; They weren't that far behind him, and there were a lot of them. I couldn't tell the dominant species, not from this range. Not that it really mattered in the end. The Blood Pack had already killed those people. Removed whoever they had once been, whoever they could have been, and ended them by turning them into nothing more than mobile explosives that we had no choice but to deal with.

Deal with. Heh. Look at me. Already trying to justify what was about to happen.

"But... we fucking..." Jack's voice broke as she saw the same crowd appearing. "We don't know that..."

"Jacqueline." I kept my voice low, my hands bringing the cannon into line more or less without conscious thought. "Stay down, keep... keep your biotics ready for the real fight."

Her helmet swung my way, the blank visor somehow showing pain, shock, and... something like fear. Maybe I was just projecting, but I thought it tracked. "Kean, they are kids..."

My throat worked as I swallowed. "I'll aim high."

It didn't seem to reassure her. Or me, to be honest. I'd have been better off not saying anything at all. Shit. I'd killed teenagers, pre-teens even, but they'd always been armed. Drugged up usually, child soldiers thrown into a fight without fully realizing the consequences of what they were doing. But they'd had a choice, they'd had weapons.

These people didn't.

Fuck, I could even hear the screams of panic beginning to echo off of the buildings. People shrieking in mindless, animal panic as their instincts demanded they flee from the predators at their heels.

"Cieran." Ayle spoke, her voice firm and quick. "They're closing."

Right. I didn't have time for this. Sucking in a breath, I settled my shoulder against the weapon, and laid my head to one side to properly look down the crude iron-sights I'd never actually had to use before or had reason to improve.

"Pillar of Heart, cast the blame for these actions upon those who have forced our own." I found myself muttering as I squeezed the trigger, the massive cannon thundering in response to the pull. It drowned out the rest of the words of Batarian philosophy, words that I'd kept in the back of my head ever since Nyn had told me that particular passage. "Let the paragons who stand upon your heights join us in crushing those who deserve your wrath, delivering them to be ground into the desert sands."

I tried not to see just what my gun was doing people into the distance. Or what the light machine gun on the other flank was doing, once its crew got it going properly. It took them a few tries, apparently even members of a Warlord's army didn't exactly find this kind of thing easy either.

I tried not to pay attention to the thrum of an old electric motor, the truck Illyan had rigged up slowly moving through the gates as Ayle steered it's VI through her omni-tool. It picked up speed once it was past the barricade, the whine of its engine increasing in volume as it rattled forwards.

I couldn't not pay attention to what came next.

The truck crashed into the front ranks of the mob, some of them so obviously panicked they hadn't even noticed that this particular vehicle was actually mobile rather than being a wreck. The crowd, looking like an even mix between Batarians and Humans, tried to scatter out of its way as soon as they realized their peril. Some made it, others... not so much.

Ayle didn't detonate it right away, instead letting the truck grind to a halt maybe a hundred, hundred and fifty meters down range. Let the crowd swarm around it, enough that I could start to make out the hulking shapes in the distance where the Krogan followed their living ablative armor.

Below and to my right, the rifles, carbines, and pistols began to chatter and bark as the other defenders engaged the slaves. Some of them, those not totally lost in mindless panic, had apparently realized the danger. They tried to dart sideways into doorways or alleys, seeking any means of escape. A few might have made it, but even from this distance I could pick out the vorcha and their leashed varren responsible for guiding them.

More howls joined more screams when the varren were set loose after those who fled, the sight of them tearing flesh enough to funnel the slaves back on course.

Then... Ayle pushed the button, and everything went white.

Car bombs, be they old ground vehicles or expensive air-cars, are nasty things. You put a whole lot of explosives and grenades into a very small space, both usually containing their own fragments or ball bearings to do damage, and combine it with the parts of the vehicle that are now moving outwards at hundreds of kilometers per hour, and you get... carnage.

What's worse, if we'd had time we could have made it even more bloody, had Illyan loosen the bolts and screws beneath the carriage to maximize the parts that would shatter.

Those humans nearest to the truck, within maybe twenty or thirty meters, were instantly killed by the blast wave. The Batarians within the same range could have survived, though they wouldn't have been happy about it, if not for the wave of metal and glass that followed. Here and there pieces richoted off of the buildings on either side of the street, bouncing backwards to add to the carnage.

Our explosion killed most of the slaves that the gunners... and I, hadn't already put down.

The cheap collars around their necks finished off all but a tiny handful after that. Jostled or damaged by the blast, they started going off in rapid succession, like a hundred plus grenades all detonating simultaneously in the seconds after the initial explosion.

"Mother of god." Jack breathed beside me, slumping forwards even as her hands simply tore through the sheet metal of our tower, the warpfire unconsciously swirling around her fingers. "I'm... fucking...they really were..."

For a moment I could only join her in staring at the street, it's carpeting of body parts and blood making my stomach churn. Part of me wanted to feel relieved that the slaves really _had_ been walking bombs, that we hadn't fucked that up somehow. Another part of me wanted to be disgusted regardless, wanted to turn around and vomit until there was nothing in my stomach.

But then I saw the Krogan and Vorcha, those that had been far enough away from the blast, lumbering towards us as if the titanic explosions hadn't just occurred.

Something vicious rose in my chest, a snarl making my lips curl as I shifted my weapon into line. I didn't say anything, I honestly don't think I was capable of speech in that moment. Instead I simply yanked on the trigger, sending massive tracer rounds to hammer into the goddess-damned _creatures_ that had just sent people at us as if they were nothing but weapons to be expended.

On my right, Jack's pistol began to bark, a curse accompanying each pull of the trigger. Cursing the Krogan, the Vorcha, me, Ayle, this planet, the galaxy at large. I knew she wasn't all there when she openly tore into Cerberus, apparently not even coherent enough to realize what she was saying. The rest of our unit, plus the local squad, quickly resumed firing as the shock of the explosion faded, throwing as much metal downrange as our limited firepower would allow.

If our enemies were bothered by the fact that we were shooting at them before they'd probably planned, they didn't show it.

Bellows directed Vorcha to start advancing by fire and maneuver, and to release what Varren had survived the explosions. There weren't many, but their darting forms quickly drew nearly everyone else's attention lest they get close enough to sink their fangs in. And for a few moments I was really the only one focusing on the primary targets.

I killed two Krogan in that time, about twenty seconds or so, my heavy rounds blowing through their armor. But there was still a good dozen of them upright and mobile, plus three times that many Vorcha, and they'd used the slack in fire to dart forwards until they'd covered nearly half the distance between us.

Even better, the gunfire from my allies was growing more sporadic as their heat built up. It was still enough to prevent the enemy from rushing us, but it was clear that they wouldn't be able to keep that pace up for very long either.

A heavy round screamed through the air just above my head, making me flinch and swear as I realized that my continuous fire was making me the biggest target. Growling, I twisted a bit, re-aiming the weapon to cut down the Vorcha who'd shot at me. While I succeeded in ending it's life, three more and a Krogan quickly began to pepper our tower with assault rounds, several ricocheting off of my head and shoulders as my barriers barely kept them at bay.

"Ayle, if you've got another plan I'd love-"

Marcus cut me off with a snarl. "There's a kid out there!"

Flinching as a carnage round whipped just past my fucking ear, both Jack and I ducked down to let our barriers recharge. I kept swinging my gun and firing wildly, hoping to at least be threatening. "What do you mean there's a kid out there!?"

"They're still alive!" He snapped back.

Jack popped her head up and then snarled. "Two kids, twenty meters out!"

I realized what she was about to do a second before she did it. Snapping my right arm off of my gun, I grabbed her belt and hauled her back down before she could try and run out there. "Are you fucking insane!? Cover them from here!"

Even through her helmet I could feel the glare, but another shout cut off anything she could have said. "Marcus you son of a bitch!"

Jerking myself back up, I could only stare in shock as Jack's lover bolted from his make-shift foxhole, sprinting towards a pair of human girls screaming and huddling behind the wreckage of a car. Their collars were gone, malfunctioned and ripped off probably. The larger had her hands over the smaller's ears, and was trying to protect her with her tiny body.

"Cover that stupid asshole!" Ayle shouted again, fury lacing each word.

Grabbing my gun firmly in both hands, I yanked the trigger as the outgoing fire abruptly picked up from everyone else. It was enough to let him make it to the children, the Blood Pack abruptly checking their advance and rushing for cover against the unexpected barrage. Marcus made it to the cover, only a few rounds streaking off of his barriers, sliding like a clawball runner as he skidded to a stop next to the children.

"Stay there!" Ayle commanded, her tone absolute, "We'll cover you from-stay there!"

Marcus was apparently ignoring her. Grabbing both kids, he jerked them upright and urged them to run for our lines. Once they were moving, he ran backwards behind them, shooting at anything he could see with his carbine. Somewhere in the distance, a Krogan bellowed a command, his forces emerging from behind wreckage and around doorways to take advantage of the easy target.

We tried to cover him, but we'd been firing full auto for too long. My rigged coolant line was steaming in the cold air, forcing me to slacken my rate of fire as everyone else's shots sputtered and slowed.

The first round that pierced his barriers was up near his shoulder, armor fragments flying along with a mist of red as it pierced him. The second was a gutshot, drawing a painful scream as he stumbled to a knee.

The third hit him in the head, cutting off his voice entirely.

They didn't stop shooting immediately. Rounds aimed at his falling body whipped through the air, finding targets in the two tiny figures still running towards us. Neither little girl was wearing armor, or much of anything. Both tumbled the ground with breathy cries of pain, their bodies rolling and and then curling around themselves reflexively.

I could only sag, biting my tongue against a heart-felt curse. It was a bad decision, I almost bit the stupid thing off when there was a scream of pure fury and rage from directly beside me.

That doesn't really do the sound that Jack made justice. It was more than loud, it was deafening. A scream that had to have torn her throat apart with its total lack of control, a berserker cry of pure violent promise that openly told everyone just how little she now cared about her own life.

And then she was moving.

Warpfire made me howl in pain as it burned across my right arm and side, my body reflexively slamming against the side of the tower as I tried to get away from her. The swirling black and blue power had completely immolated the biotic, swirling around her as she simply ran _through_ the guard rail, the metal disintegrating before her.

Everyone on both sides was shouting in confusion and alarm. Gunfire from the enemy was streaking towards Jack only to slam into barriers I don't think she was aware that she'd even called up.

Her response was... total.

I couldn't see much, being mostly prone and cradling my burned arm, but I could see enough. Shockwaves blew out store fronts and the sides of buildings, throws sent groups of Vorcha screaming into the sky to fall to their death elsewhere, and warp fire rolled in streams from her hands as if she was holding a pair of flamethrowers.

Krogan tried to close with her, to use their mass to slam the tiny human down to the ground where she could be killed more easily. Jack dealt with them in turn, slamming some into the ground with gestures, letting others burn themselves on the localized storm of dark energy still swirling around her before flinging their remains away with contemptuous gestures.

I don't know how many she killed before the buildings started to collapse. Most of them, at least. Some were still shooting when a three story structure sagged and then toppled into the streets, the cloud of dust obscuring everything except the violent blue glow of Subject Zero's power. More structures came down after that, their foundations broken her reckless violence, smoke and rubble choking off everything as the cacophony of it smothered even the dying screams of her foes.

And then there was silence.

"Ul...Ul..." There was a determined swallow before Ayle found her voice. "Ullak. Hesh. Find her. Lieutenant... help."

"Keelah...I... yes." The Quarian barely managed to stammer the words out, everyone but our own commander slowly emerging from their places, staring at the still roiling cloud of dust in shock.

"Cie?" I tried to say something, but all that came out was a pained sound. "T'Donna?"

A subjective eternity later found Illyan pounding up the tower, the structure groaning beneath her weight. Strong hands seized me by the chest plate, hauling me back down the stairs. She almost made it before it collapsed with a groan of tortured metal, sending both of us to the ground when she simply dove the rest of the way.

If nothing else it told me that I was apparently underestimating how much Jack had hurt me simply be being _nearby_ , because the fall was agonizing on a level I could scarcely remember experiencing before.

"Boss?" Hands pulled at me, rolling me gently onto my back. I coughed and gasped as the motion reminded me that air was something I needed. "Thank the goddess. He's alive but burned."

"How badly?"

Someone, probably Illyan, touched my right arm carefully. "I... I don't think he's going to die but he's in a lot of pain."

"Pillars damn that bitch, Hesh, have you-"

" _Target eliminated."_ Thul's disconcertingly cheerful voice interrupted her, " _Mission complete Commander, Cie. What is your status?"_

"Our status." Ayle repeated, her voice going from commanding to... exhausted, as if that question had been all it took to shatter her barely gathered composure. "We're... Pillars."

" _Commander? Ayle?"_

 _"Cie."_ Voya cut in, " _What's wrong with Ayle? What happened?"_

Shaking my head, I let myself sag in my armor, staring at the sky. I didn't make an effort to speak. Neither did anyone else. What was the point?

* * *

_**Next up is Interlude V: The Lady** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Overwatch is a thing. Just stating that aloud in case anyone was wondering. As far as this chapter goes... things happened, not good ones either. First combat casualties, exposure to the levels that the Blood Pack are comfortable lowering themselves to... not a fun day for anyone involved.
> 
> Next chapter is complete, so the usual rules in affect. Twelve reviews by this time tomorrow sees it post in the morning, otherwise I'll probably post it sometime over the weekend. The post-chapter news sections will pick up again during the next phase, while I have something else planned for the next operation. It should be a rather intense one, I've been looking forwards to it for a while. Only tease I'll give for it: Number Fifteen will be making an appearance.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	21. Interlude V: The Lady

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

**Interlude V: The Lady**

_Date: 01-27-2183_

_Location: Battlecruiser Dark Tide, Orbiting Kirkwall, Eastern Terminus_

* * *

I didn't want to move. Or think. Or do much of anything really.

A hand reached down, almost gently brushing through my hair as the woman whose lap was holding my head absently stroked the long strands. If I'd less out of it I might have been annoyed at the touch. There was a slow huff of vanilla scented smoke, the familiar flavor of chehala on the air as Ayle smoked above me.

We were alone in one of the observation decks on T'Ravt's flagship, which had apparently showed up shortly after the battle had more or less ended. Neither of us was sure what it, or the Warlord herself, was doing here, or why they'd already shifted our belongings back on board, but we didn't really care.

I, at least, was too busy brooding and staring at the stars to care.

Jack was gone. Officially she was missing, presumed dead, because no one had been able to find her body yet. Intellectually I knew that the woman was a survivor, who'd clung to life through shit that I could barely even imagine, but... shit. She'd been exhausted when she'd lost her mind and raced out there. Even if she had initially survived she wouldn't have been in any shape to do more than crawl a bit before passing out, and that was assuming that her own biotic power hadn't simply immolated her as it had her enemies.

Of course, even if she was alive I couldn't imagine her staying with us at this point. Not even for the promise of Krom's bounty. We'd know in a few days either way, once the locals got done picking through the dozen or so buildings she'd collapsed on top of herself. If they found her... then I'd fucked with the future even more. If they didn't... I'd have to assume she got out somehow, and that she probably wouldn't be happy to see me at any point in the future.

And Marcus... shit. I hadn't known the bounty hunter all that well. He'd never exactly been comfortable around me, with my predilection for speaking in the Asari tongue and holding myself as if I were a Batarian. Jack hadn't either, but she'd at least occasionally joined in the card games my squad had played, or gone with when Shyeel and I had set out to fleece unsuspecting idiots of their credits. In comparison, her lover had all but actively avoided me.

But he'd still been one of us. So had Jack. And that wasn't even going into the shit we'd been forced to do immediately before.

"They hated child slavers." Ayle spoke around her pipe, her deep voice absent. "They'd made a pact together, when they first met. Kill them wherever they found them."

"You know why?" I murmured, adjusting myself a little. My right arm was stuck in a sling, slathered in medigel and bandages to repair the damage and leave me with a whole new collection of scars. I didn't actually need the thing, but it helped keep the white wrappings in place.

"No. Something in their pasts."

I knew Jack's, but Marcus... I guess this is what I got for never talking to him. "Must have been bad, for him to run out there like that."

"For her too... Pillar of Heart," I felt her shudder. "I've never even seen Asari do anything like that."

"I have... sort of." Aethyta could pull off the localized storm thing, but she'd been in control of it, not letting it lash out like Jack had. Somehow I doubted that the human biotic had even been aware of it in the end. "A Matriarch, but... even by that standard..."

Fingers continued to absently move through my hair. I had no idea why she liked doing that, anymore than I knew why Nynsi and Rane had so often done the same thing, but it seemed to relax her slightly. And besides, she was letting me use her legs as a pillow, so I didn't really have room to bitch.

Besides... I'd been bitched at enough in the last twenty-four hours to not want to disturb the water over anything that wasn't a life or death matter right now.

Most of that, unsurprisingly, had been Voya. The tiny Quarian had all but exploded at us when she'd found out everything that had happened. Her cursing was diverse enough that I had no idea if she'd been furious at what we'd done, or what Jack ha done to me, or if both were equally enraging. She'd managed to calm herself for about a ten minutes stretch while the medic reported on my injuries, then exploded at the Blood Pack, her tirade going on until she'd all but collapsed.

The others hadn't been as vocal, at least. Illyan would have been comatose if Shyeel and Thul hadn't dragged her along with the still belligerent Voya into one of the ship's lounges to drink as soon as we arrived. For his part, Jarick had elected to tag along without really saying anything, just trailing along next to Illyan with a blank look on his face. The kid was a bit young to get drunk out of his mind, but given the circumstances I wasn't going to stop him. Hesh and Ullak had vanished to their room, probably to try forget the crap that had happened with copious amounts of sex.

Which had just left Ayle and I. She'd risked entering the room she shared with her cadre to grab some casual clothes, accepting my offer of my cabin to change in. Once we were both changed, and moderately clean, we'd wandered into the lounge and taken turns chain-smoking our pipes and brooding.

I exhaled slowly, turning my gaze from the stars to the ceiling. Logic and planning usually worked to keep my mind off of things, so I sucked in a long breath, let it out, and forced my drowned brain to process the aftermath and the decisions we would have to make. "Losing them is a problem, beyond just the numbers of it. Jack was our only real biotic with Shyeel's damage."

A billow smoke curled down to tickle my nose as she let out a slow breath. "Yes. One of our squads will be without a biotic, that makes things difficult."

"Still planning on dividing into three?"

"Yes... yes." The hand in my hair started to play with a few strands as her mind engaged on a problem. "Reyja'krem Weshan and her additional should be joining us soon. I will keep my cadre, you will keep Shyeel and Voya. Thul will command the new arrivals."

I grunted quietly. "Do you want me to talk with Illyan? Her biotics aren't terribly strong but she has them."

There was a thoughtful pause. "If she can be convinced, then I would have her join your team and move Shyeel to my own."

I had no idea if she could be convinced or not. The shit that had just happened on Kirkwall might have doomed that particular idea to the deeps forever, or maybe it made her hate the Krogan as much as I did right now. Either way it couldn't hurt to ask, and at least she'd be in my unit. "I'll ask."

"There is also the gap of a medical specialist." Ayle murmured, her lower eyes flicking pointedly at my bound arm. "I know you don't wish to, but a message to Sederis would be appreciated. If the young officer you often message with can be spared..."

"I'll ask." I repeated, though that one was more likely. Sederis, for whatever reason, still wanted me alive, and having one of her people loaned to us would only give her more power over our actions. "But..."

"I am aware of the imperfect nature of the solution, but medical matters aren't something I am comfortable entrusting to a freelancer."

"Fair." My eyes closed as I sighed. I was running out of readily available topics. "My armor shouldn't take long to repair, when's our next mission?"

"Whenever the One-Twenty-First finishes their mop-up operations and is loaded." Her body moved slightly, probably a small shrug. "We are contracted to assist in their next assignment. I believe it is clearing out a nest of pirates in the Traverse."

Which didn't sound so bad, except for the part about the Traverse. "Ayle..."

"Even your luck should not be so bad as to encounter a Spectre again."

I slumped a little. "You just _had_ to say that."

She chuckled quietly, her calloused fingers sliding up my hair to rest on my forehead. "And you continue to evade."

Something in my chest twitched a little. "Ayle..."

"I did leave the door open for you to join me when I changed, you can't have missed that even with only two eyes." There was a little pause. "Or did I mistake the glances you have been giving me for the past month? Are they for a reason other than physical interest?"

"They... were." I admitted quietly. "But... shit, it's complicated."

She sighed through her teeth, a quiet, whistling sound. "You still mourn Rane'li."

"Yes."

Ayle didn't say anything for several moments, then she sighed again. "You really are a noble idiot Cieran Kean, with just enough... human-ness to be annoying when you wish to be."

"I don't wish to be annoying, I just... I... shit." Reaching up with my only free hand, I rubbed furiously at my face. "Even without Rane, I... we're friends Ayle, but I don't like you in the same way I did her."

"You don't love me, you mean." She stated succinctly. "I fail to see the problem considering that I don't love you either. I simply find you attractive and believe I would enjoy an evening of activity with you. Am I wrong in believing that at least a part of you doesn't feel the same way?"

She wasn't. She wasn't as overtly attractive as Rane'li or Nynsi, her face was too angled, too harsh to truly be beautiful. But she assuredly wasn't ugly either, and the rest of her was... she was far more built than either of my previous lovers, with a warrior's strong physique that I couldn't help but admire and want to see more of.

"If you didn't want to spend time with me," Ayle continued, her rough voice growing quiet. "You would have gone with your companions to the bar."

Another point, damn her.

The mental argument really gathered the wind, right about then. My mental cave-man was screaming at me to stop being a whiny weakling, to get up and bite the woman on the right side of her neck and claim her and take her right here in the lounge and fuck _feelings_ and _guilt_. Opposite was another voice that was aghast at the very idea, and was flinging images of memory at me, of everything I'd known and loved about Rane and what she'd meant to me.

"What would you do," I asked softly, buying time to think. "If I said yes?"

"If you said yes, this couch is more than comfortable enough." A wave of heat ran through me at the low growl in her words. "And I do believe that the door locks."

My tongue licked my lips as I asked my next question. "And if I said no?"

The hand on my forehead stilled, then shifted back to stroke my hair again. "I would continue to smoke, to play with your hair, and to speak on whatever topic aids us in avoiding thinking about what happened on Kirkwall." I was going to relax, then the same, rumbling sound came back into her voice. "I may also push you against a wall later, to take payment for inciting me."

Athame's azure... what was with me and Batarian females? Just the mental picture of her biting my neck or kissing me and commanding me was...

I forced myself not to twitch as another wave of arousal was throttled down.

You don't love Ayle, you would be betraying Rane's memory, and it would make your working relationship complicated. I told my instincts as firmly as I could. It... well, it was only technically the truth.

My mouth opened, then closed before I could say no. It opened again, but I honestly couldn't have told you what I was about to say before a melodic voice spoke from the other side of the couch.

"If you would please avoid having sex in here, I would appreciate it. The couches are terribly difficult to clean."

It just about gave me a heart attack, and from Ayle's startled breath she wasn't far off either. I tried to shoot upright and draw my gun in the same motion, but I'd been sitting in place for nearly four hours and my fucking legs were numb. Ayle's attempt to suddenly stand didn't help either, so instead of snapping into a sitting position I more or less went into a full-body convulsion that left me sprawled on the floor and groaning in pain, and left Ayle dropping back into the couch with a groan and a thudding sound.

The same voice laughed merrily, the sound something like bells tingling daintily against one another. "That was _most_ graceful, Reyja'krem."

"Thank you." I groaned as I belatedly recognized who had snuck into the room with me, turning my voice to the stilted formal tones I rarely used anymore. "And my apologies."

"None are needed." There was no sound to accompany her movements, but a few breaths later found a pair of slipper-covered feet beside my head, just barely visible in the corner of my vision. "You were sharing a rather private conversation, but I felt the need to announce myself before it could go farther."

For which most of me was incredibly thankful. Sucking in a breath, I slowly rolled onto my back in preparation for the long act of getting up, only for a spasm of pain in my back to make me freeze and carefully stay still.

Yan T'Ravt, Lady Warlord, stood next to me. It was the first time I'd seen her not wearing armor, and I found myself taking in the sight of her. She was wearing a plain white dress that complemented her thin frame, though in defiance of typical Asari fashion it covered her chest up to her neck. Something like opera gloves covered her hands and forearms up to her elbows, also white, and I watched as she crossed her arms, the motion drawing my gaze back up to her face.

Her dark navy features stared back down at me, one corner of her delicate mouth quirked in amusement. "Do you intend to rise, Reyja'krem Kean, or do you simply enjoy laying in such and undignified fashion?"

"I can't say that I enjoy laying here, the floor is rather uncomfortable." I admitted politely, restraining a hiss of pain as the cramp in my back tightened to something closer to agonizing. "But I find myself rather locked in place at the moment."

"Then I shall assist you." To my surprise, she gracefully lowered herself to a kneeling position beside me. Before I could demure, there was a gloved arm beneath my neck and hauling me to a seated position. This time I _did_ let out a tiny sound of pain before I forced my breathing to even. "Now stretch."

I did, slowly, with a heavy dose of help from her. First leaning backwards, then to one side as I found the stupid muscle that was locked tight. It took a few minutes before it relaxed, and I fought not to slump in relief as the pain receded. Ayle watched silently from her place on the couch, shifting to the other end to leave that space open for the Warlord should she choose to take it.

"Thank you." I murmured quietly, the pair of us still sitting on the damned floor. "I find myself rather embarrassed."

The Warlord seemed amused by that. "Because I am a Warlord of the Terminus?"

"Because you are you." My left shoulder twitched as I politely dipped my head in that direction. "Sederis would have howled with laughter and then spoken to me as I was."

"True." T'Ravt tipped her head a few hairs to the right, wordlessly accepting the respect I offered. "She is a rather unpleasant individual, in that fashion."

She was rather unpleasant in more ways than that. "As you say, Lady Warlord."

That tiny grin reappeared on her face again. "You do not enjoy this kind of game, do you? The careful talk, the dance of words, the polite conversation?"

I considered my words carefully, glancing at Ayle and finding no help there. Swallowing, I spoke slowly and carefully. "I did rather enjoy such speech, not that long ago, but since my exile I have found my enthusiasm waning."

T'Ravt considered that for a long moment, "You are quite skilled at respecting my position. I would not consider it rude or untoward if you wish to speak as you would to Sederis, or to your companions."

I couldn't help but let out a tiny snort. "Are you quite sure?"

"Reyja'krem Kean, I have had to deal with Jona Sederis for longer than you have been alive, through the depths of her instability." Her amusement didn't falter. "You may do your best, but I am quite sure that I have heard worse than anything you might say."

"Fair point." She blinked as I let my voice return to normality, the formal tones than Nynsi had tutored me in fading into my usual clipped Illium accent. "Would you mind if I returned to the couch."

She agreed with me, and I rose as quickly as my sore body would allow, offering her my free hand once I'd done so. She accepted it, letting me help her to her feet and guide her to the couch. Her fingers gave the tiniest of approving squeezes around my wrist as I helped her to sit, her tiny grin not fading as she settled herself.

I started to move back and past Ayle, intending to let the pair of them have the couch to themselves while I stood behind my Commander. She apparently had other ideas, because a hand firmly grabbed the back of my shirt and hauled me down to sit between her and the end of the couch. Before I could say anything her heavy weight was leaned against my side in an entirely proprietary way that both excited and annoyed me.

Shit. This being of two minds about things was getting really old really fast.

The Warlord didn't say anything for a while, apparently content to watch the stars while Ayle smoked and I simply sat there. After a few minutes I pulled out my pipe as well, igniting the dry leaves after a few moments of work. It was a pain with just one hand, but I managed it.

"I didn't think that humans smoked chehala." T'Ravt glanced at us out of the corner of her eyes. "What are the effects?"

"A sleep aid." Ayle informed her, pulling her pipe out rather than speaking around it. "For a while, at least. Cieran has used it sufficiently to become addicted, now it simply calms his nerves and has a pleasant taste."

"I can only assume it does harm him, overmuch."

I shook my head slightly, pulling my own pipe out to reply. "No. The only withdrawal symptoms I suffer from are insomnia, nothing that would overly affect me. May I ask you a question in return?"

"Does it pertain to why I am sitting in an observation lounge with you, at this rather unusual hour?"

I resisted the urge to snort. "Yeah."

She leaned back into the couch, lifting and delicately tucking her legs in beside her as she took her time before replying. "Perhaps I wished to speak with you both, and was grateful to hear that you were away from your comrades."

Ayle and I exchanged a tiny glance of surprise at that, though she was the one who spoke. "To what do we owe the pleasure, Lady Warlord?"

T'Ravt's eyes, the same light blue of her bitch of a sister's, narrowed a little. "Because your male companion is a mystery."

I blinked. "A mystery?"

"Yes." She nodded minutely. "I know the official story, of course, such as it is. How my sister broke your mind, how Shaaryak gave you a home and a title. Your resultant exile thanks to the machinations of the Hegemony, what you did on Omega, who you lost, and now, who you hunt."

I stilled, not paying attention to Ayle's shocked glance, not moving so much as a millimeter as I stared at nothing for a few long moment before exhaling a billow of smoke along with a name. "Sederis."

Another tiny nod. "I wished to know more about you."

"So you've said." I made sure to dip my head a bit to the left to remove any annoyance that might have escaped into my voice. "But you haven't told me why."

"I cannot be curious about the celebrity mercenary in my employ?"

I scoffed. "I'm not a celebrity."

She eyed me with an amused glint in her eyes. "Are you or are you not the only human to ever be named a Harath'krem? To the only highborn outside of the Hegemony's borders at that, hardly a title given quietly."

"You are rather well known, Cie." Ayle murmured from beside me, her tone contemplative. "Especially amongst my people. Even before we met on Omega I knew your name and what you looked like, I could well imagine most exiles do."

"Know him and of him." The Asari continued, her tone amused. "How he combines human nobility, a thing many did not know existed, along with Batarian nobility to be something unique. I do believe you may be the single most respected human in the galaxy in their collective eyes."

I glanced between them, not really sure where the Warlord was going with this. And the idea of being respected or looked up to was... disconcerting. "So... Batarians know who I am, which means I'm widely known, since they're what, thirty percent of the Terminus's population?"

"Thirty-five," T'Ravt idly corrected me, "Not including Vorcha."

Vorcha weren't people, so I hadn't been including them either way. I mulled on the numbers before nodding slightly. "Known is one thing, but celebrity?"

"Perhaps celebrity is the wrong term." Her head dipped a little to acknowledge her possible mistake. "Though you easily could be, if you wished it."

"I don't." I stated flatly.

She blinked once, then cocked her head to show polite confusion while her hands folded demurely in her lap. "Why not?"

"Why would I?" When I realized that was a stupid way to answer, I sighed, took a single pull from my pipe, and then spoke amidst another cloud of white smoke. "I don't have any interest in people gawking at me, or Athame send them to the deeps, in having _fans_ just because I appreciate traditional Batarian culture _._ I've got enough money set away on Illium to leave me set for life even without the payment Aria will hand over in exchange for giving her Krom, so that doesn't appeal either."

"Something I appreciate." Ayle dipped her head politely, both of her right eyes watching me. "It makes our finances much simpler to manage."

"There is no appeal in Batarian men and women willing to lay with you simply for being who you are?"

I found myself almost glaring at the Warlord. "No."

The Asari flicked her gaze to Ayle, who stiffened with her own subdued irritation. "He is a friend, and attractive. We hold the same title, I have no lust for power I know he won't reach for."

Huh. That she knew I wouldn't... apparently she knew me better than I thought she did. Something to think about.

The Warlord let out a quiet humming noise before glancing away, looking out the view-port as if we had just told her something so monumental that she had to consider it in detail.

I didn't say anything for a while, letting my half-drowned brain pick the appropriate words before I did. "You avoided the question, Lady Warlord."

"Did I?" Her tone was guileless.

"You did." A slow exhale of smoke followed. "I also can't help but notice that, for this entire conversation, you have held yourself like a highborn Batarian rather than as an Asari."

"So I have."

No answers from her then, Ayle and I would have to work out what she was here for on our own. Dammit, this reminded me of just what I hated about high society crap like this. The pomp and ceremony and false politeness I could run with, but I hated dancing around need-to-know information... and not knowing things in general really.

Athame's ass, Sederis probably had picked up on that personality flaw and told her about it.

"I believe... you're questioning us about something that you aren't actually asking. Avoiding something that you want to know and trying to get Ayle or I to reveal something." I mused, not missing the tiny flicker of interest in her expression. "It could be about why your sister attacked me, but I doubt it. Too simple an explanation, and you'd know that neither Sederis nor I have any ideas on that."

"And I didn't even know the identity of your attacker until now." Ayle mused, turning away from me to stare entirely at the warlord, letting her strong back rest against my left side. I could feel the delicate ridges covering her spine through her shirt, and another conflicted wave of lust ran through my fucked up head. "That was most likely a simple statement to reveal the depths of her knowledge, rather than the actual direction of inquiry."

She didn't reply, continuing to gaze at the stars with a tiny smile on her dark lips.

"But all of the questions were directed to me, more or less. Not about the unit as a whole, which is odd. There's four of us with titles, with three more on the way." I took a slow puff on my pipe, letting the flavor fill my nose and mouth before exhaling. "Whatever she's interested in, it's about me instead of us."

My Commander let out an almost silent growl that let me know just how happy she was about that. "She wanted insight into your fur covered skull that Sederis didn't give her, or confirmation of something she did tell her. Something about your personality. A test, or a comparison."

The Warlord gave the tiniest of nods, the same damned smirk still in place. "A comparison."

I felt my eyes narrow. "With who? Krom?"

"No. That creature is broken, insane. Whatever my sister did to the pair of you, he did not take it as well, or else the process was not perfected during his time with her." She looked away from us, and slowly slid her feet to the ground before rising. "Now, I do believe that I shall depart for my own chambers. It is quite late."

Something in my head strained to near the breaking point, and I barely kept my voice civil. "What is _with_ your family and mysterious questions and vague declarations!?"

The Warlord blinked, obviously startled at my vehemence. Then she actually chortled, giving me an almost wicked grin. "I blame my grandmother, personally. She adored such talk and insisted that we all learn to be as cryptic as she. It's something of an ingrained habit that I must admit to enjoying."

I exhaled irritably and bit down hard on my pipe to keep my mouth shut.

"I will say two things, one may soothe you, one will... likely annoy you." Something in my right cheek twitched a little at the latter. "When you have time for your expedition to my throneworld, I trust you will find the currents that will carry you to the one I compare you with. I ask that you do _not_ kill them, however. They hold a rather vital position I would prefer not to have open at the moment."

Which... could fucking mean anything. Another of the Matriarch's pets? The person who'd given me to them? The one responsible for my knee-jerk reaction to slavery?

"Is that the one that was supposed to annoy me?" I asked around my pipe. Impolite? Yes. Necessary to reduce the irritation in my voice? Very much so.

"It was." She dipped her head to the left in a minor apology. "As for the other. Krom has been spotted by my agents... on Redcliffe."

I froze entirely in place, staring at her in something like shock as my brain abruptly cut its sails and drifted to a full halt.

"My fleet is preparing to engage the forces of Warlord Zaen in that system, and will then establish a blockade." She continued placidly. "Once the regiment you are attached to has completed its pirate hunt, they are scheduled to join the landing forces in early April, after the landing zones have been secured. I would prefer it if your team remained with them to maximize familiarity between both my people and yourselves."

Ayle, thankfully, was still able to communicate properly. "I will reach out to the usual channels for pay and contract details."

"That will be acceptable." With a final, demure grin and bow of her head, she was gone.

I barely even noticed, because Krom was on Redcliffe. I knew where that son of a bitch was now. And we were going there to hunt him. We were going to take that asshole, and drag his ass to Aria. And then he would die in horrific, screaming, mentally scarring agony, and I would have my vengeance.

I didn't remember standing, or moving to the window, but apparently I had. I leaned there, my left forearm against the glass as I stared at the stars.

"Redcliffe is Zaen's capital." Ayle spoke quietly, moving to stand beside me. "The heart of his industry. If they lose it the Blood Pack will be finished. Not immediately, but eventually. They'll fight to death to keep it."

"Good." I murmured in reply. "That means they won't let Krom flee. They'll need him there to fight, to hunt T'Ravt's generals and officers."

"And us."

"And us." My good fist clenched then relaxed, and I found myself taking off the annoying sling in a quick jerk of motion. It hurt, but not so badly as to prevent me from using the bandaged limb. Most of that was probably the anesthetic in the medigel, I was sure I'd be in something like agony come morning. "He's... goddess. I worried it would take years."

"As did I." Fingers brushed against my left arm. "How do you feel?"

How did I feel? I _knew_ were Krom was. We were going there. His masters wouldn't let him flee, not from such a strategically important location.

I felt... I felt...

Entirely on impulse, I turned, seized Ayle by the shoulders and whirled her against the glass. She let out a startled hiss that chocked off when I suddenly kissed her and... by the goddess. It wasn't until her mouth started moving against mine that I realized how much I'd missed the deep, earthy flavors of Batarian lips, the feel of a strong body suddenly pressing against mine, the bone-vibrating growls of pleasure that emitted from her chest.

I broke the touch, gasping for air as I adjusted my head so that our foreheads rested against each other. My arms were trembling... my entire body was quivering like a taught rope in a headwind... I felt... Excited, aroused, furious, guilty, conflicted, ecstatic...

There weren't words in Thessian, Highborn, Lowborn, or English to describe how I felt.

Pain made it my turn to hiss as a hand jerked on my hair, letting her upper eyes glare into mine as she pulled. "Cieran Kean. You don't do that and then _stop_."

I had a split second to stare at her before she growled again, her other hand grabbing my shirt and shoving hard. I stumbled, and kept stumbling as she kept pushing until the back of my knees hit the couch and I collapsed onto it.

She followed me, deceptively graceful as she straddled me, keeping my head tilted backwards before her lips found mine in an aggressive kiss of her own. My hands remembered what to do, sliding around her strong back, feeling the muscles flexing before pressing against the spots on her spine.

Ayle gasped into my mouth, and it was her turn to quiver as I touched her through her shirt.

Her hand abruptly let go of my hair, and I felt them moving between us, impatiently grabbing at my shirt... right when someone fucking cleared their throat.

We both stilled, then pulled apart. Her expression could have killed whoever it was, assuming they survived the frost in her voice. "Hesh."

The member of her cadre sounded like he wanted to either burst out laughing or to run for the hills. "Tarath'shan, we're... supposed to transition to another cruiser in preparation for our next assignment."

I felt the growl in the chest still pressing against mine. " _Now_?"

 _"_ Yes ma'am."

Lips peeled back in a furious expression. "Have Ullak get everyone from the bar, whichever lounge they went to. Personal items to the cargo bay." Dark lower eyes flicked to my face while her upper set stayed on Hesh. I hadn't stopped running my fingers up and down her spine, and I felt her hips roll once against me. "And lock the door behind you."

"I... yes ma'am."

I didn't hear the doors close, or lock, but she nodded once a few breaths later. "We won't be able to take our time, unfortunately."

My eyes half closed as I breathed. "Ayle, the more you talk the more likely I am to remember that I'm supposed to be horribly guilt-ridden and conflicted about-"

Her mouth shut me up before I could continue, her tongue pressing against mine while her hands resumed yanking at my shirt.

We weren't interrupted again.

* * *

_**Next up is Operation: The Burdens** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We get a little bit of a glimpse at how Cieran is viewed, at least by the Batarian exiles in the Terminus. He also... ahem, gets some though how he's going to feel about what he did in the aftermath will be something examined in the next chapter. Oh, and T'Ravt is annoyingly mysterious simply because it amuses her to be, proving that she and her sister have something in common.
> 
> As I said on the top, the next chapter is completed and just waiting on the Blocked Writer's approval. Twelve reviews by this time tomorrow morning will see it post then, otherwise it will go out next Monday morning.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	22. Operation: The Burden I

I don't own the Mass Effect. Credit to BioWare for that, credit to LogicalPremise for the scattered elements I have borrowed from his verse.

* * *

**Operation: The Burden**

_Date: 02-25-2813_

_Location: Antibaar, Armstrong Nebula, outer Skyllian Verge_

* * *

Voya and I stood beside one another in a storage room cut into the glacier, steam exhaling with each breath. She was in full armor, sealed up to help with the cold. I was in normal pants and a shirt, and found the place comfortably nostalgic in a way I couldn't really explain.

Of course, that feeling had been pushed aside for the moment, because I was busy glaring at a massive Asari who had the decency to look sheepish. "Ayle said I could go ahead boss."

I felt a muscle in my cheek twitch. "Illyan... I told you I wanted to be here when you finally turned it on."

" _Intruder detected."_ A deep, synthesized baritone spoke in Lowborn Batarian, a glowing red eye tracking someone entering the room behind us. " _Permission to eliminate."_

"Denied." I snapped. "And shut up Glitch."

" _Disengaging combat protocols, Engaging silent runtimes."_ The Juggernaut class combat mech intoned, somehow managing to sound disappointed. It was about the same size as my power armor, and actually resembled it with the same boxy proportions and gangling arms. There was a reason for that, the type had been the Hegemony's attempt to respond to the Alliance' YMIR design albeit on a cheaper, less advanced scale, and they'd based it on the same construction model exoskeleton I'd used as inspiration.

The main difference was that it actually had a head, a rectangular armored box that swiveled left to right to let its primary cameras scan the room, tracking the other members of our team as they arrived for our pointless daily meeting. She hadn't painted it yet, leaving the armor a dull gunmetal, intending to leave it that way until she'd finished testing everything.

Well, as much as testing would reveal anything about the homicidal program my lover had created.

The mech had been Illyan's price for joining us as a full-time combat operative. She'd drafted me to convince Ayle to spend a decent portion of our savings on the thing, arguing that having another heavy to help cover me... and also for her and Voya to hide behind if the situation called for it. I'd been entirely in agreement with the idea up until I realized that Rane had apparently given her a copy of Glitch's VI matrix when the pair of them had been on Illium together.

"Just... reload the unit roster into its friend and foe registry." I sighed, rubbing at my forehead. "And make sure there are at least three backups in the system in case it tries to delete them or something."

"It still wants to kill us then?" A dry voice spoke up from behind me, making me turn my torso to look around.

Dietrich Smith was about my height, but the similarities ended there. I was lanky and gangly, he was built like a bear, with a thick, curly black beard to go with wiry hair that reached his shoulders. His face looked like it had been beaten with a board when he was young, further enforcing his thuggish appearance. But while his blue eyes were partially obscured by his thick brow, they still managed to glitter with intelligence that told you just how dangerous a man this was.

"Yes." Voya growled, still glaring at up at Illyan. "Along with everyone else besides the three of us."

"Awesome." He chortled, not sounding terribly bothered. He spoke English, but did it with an odd accent I couldn't place... maybe South American? Still, I'd known the former N5 for less than a week, but I couldn't help but like him. He seemed to take oddities and chaos entirely in stride, though I could have done without his obsession with blowing things up. "Rest of the team will be by in a bit."

I grunted and dipped my head in the Batarian way, showing polite thanks. He chuckled deeply again, tipped his chin respectfully to the left, and then wandered over to where he'd stored his demolition packs.

"Are you sure I can't-"

"Yes." I shook my head with a sigh. "Stop asking."

The Quarian let out an annoyed little sound. "She'd survive it. And it would teach her to stop being an idiotic bosh'tet that only thinks with their-"

"Voya."

She quieted, but still gave me an annoyed glare that narrowed her wide, gleaming eyes to slits.

I sighed again. She'd been testy and belligerent ever since Kirkwall. More so that usual, anyway, though I was probably the only one who knew her well enough to notice the difference. Illyan being back hadn't helped matters, the pair of them had resumed their old rivalry almost at once. So far they'd kept it to words, but I didn't doubt that they'd have seriously gone after each other if I hadn't constantly warned them both not to.

"Come on, I want to make sure everything is ready to be loaded tomorrow."

"The day after tomorrow." Voya corrected me somewhat primly. "The storm is supposed to last for twenty hours, and it's not getting here for another two."

"So early tomorrow, like I said. Or... Voya. Honestly, _Citadel_ days? I know we're in the Traverse but come on, use Omega time like a civilized being."

There was a tiny growl and a punch to my side, but her gray lips twitched in one corner. "Asshole. You're just impatient to leave."

"You aren't?" I asked the question as I turned, heading to the corner where my power armor loomed in its rack. "I could have sworn I heard you bitching me out, wondering why we were even on this iceball."

She sniffed disdainfully. "Your imagination has always been too active, I don't recall any such conversation."

I snorted out a puff of steam. "My mistake then."

The pair of us wandered over to our corner, starting the slow process of getting everything packed into crates and boxes. We took our time, as she'd said, there wasn't really any rush.

We'd been on the planet for a week and a half, and had spent most of the time bored out of our minds, with just an undercurrent of stress brought on by the fact that we were in the fucking Skyllian Verge. For his part, Colonel Kaste had only requested a single mission from us, cleaning out a small surface outpost maybe fifty kilometers away. It hadn't been much, a few prefabs filled with pirates who'd put up a token fight and then promptly surrendered when I'd smashed my power armor through a wall and into their barracks.

While it left us with nothing to do, I couldn't really blame the old Turian. His regiment had gotten a solid blooding in the chaos of Kirkwall, it would be better for their morale to deal with these raiders on their own rather than relying on mercenaries to get their own job done. Really the only member who was getting anything done was Jarick, the kid plugging himself into their command structure in preparation for liaising with everyone when we hit Redcliffe.

The rest of us had just loafed around a base that reminded me painfully of the Rebel facility from the Empire Strikes Back. It was built inside of a mountain and the glacier that surrounded it, deep enough underground to conceal hangers that could hold corvettes and fleets of shuttles, and it had enough barracks and private rooms to house as many as three regiments plus support staff. Currently the One-Twenty-First was the only one present, aside from the base's staff. The prior garrison had pulled out when the war had started, gambling that the Alliance and Hegemony didn't know of the place's exact location.

Apparently T'Ravt had established the place about forty years back as a kind of recon outpost, where her scout ships could keep an eye on the Hegemony and independent pirate groups. When the Alliance had moved into the Verge, their job had shifted to tracking the Corsairs as best they could, using a hidden FTL buoy in the outer system to warn pirates in her employ when it was and wasn't safe to prey on human shipping.

It was a well stocked place, enough to make our stay comfortable, but I'd expected nothing less from the Lady Warlord. Still, despite the comforts and the nostalgia that the cold brought on, I was more than ready to leave.

My idle thoughts and concentration was broken when a pair of Asari entered the room, both of them cackling at a private joke.

Shyeel T'Voth and Callada Washen got along a little too well for my state of mind. The new Reyja'krem was of average height for her species, marking her around five four or so. She had purplish skin, with dark swirling facial markings that made me think of rolling waves. Not exactly pretty by Asari standards, but she had a lethal smirk and a fondness for cards that had seen her jump into Shyeel and I's rackets with both feet.

"Hey, Cie." My old squad member called out, "That thing safe yet?"

I snorted, shaking my head a little. "Ask Illyan."

"There's nothing wrong with Glitch." Illyan defended the big machine, patting its metal chest with a hand. "He's... just a bit odd in the circuits."

Voya scoffed. "That's like saying Sederis just gets mood swings once and a while."

Our friend glared at her, then pointedly went back to adjusting something with the console plugged into the machine's head. While she did that, the rest of the unit strolled in. Ayle was in the lead, looking as tired and bored as the rest of us while her cadre followed behind her. Thul and Jarick were behind them, the kid listening raptly as the large man explained some tenet of the Pillars to him.

Ayle... the last month had been rather complicated for she and I. True to form, the guilt had risen up the morning after we'd had almost violent sex in the observation deck. She'd been far more understanding than I'd anticipated, at least, gently but firmly re-establishing our relationship as Commander-Executive Officer and keeping me occupied with busywork whenever she could. Of course she still enjoyed giving me glimpses when she sparred or worked out, and used little gestures and adjusted her posture to let me know I was more than welcome to warm her bed again if I managed to get over my... difficulties.

I didn't think I would, but then again I hadn't thought I'd break down and sleep with her in the first place.

My eyes narrowed at the heavily bruised Hesh, the man lowering all four eyes when he noticed my gaze. If not for him I might have had an easier time working things out in my head, but he'd just _had_ to run his mouth. Illyan in particular had been all but insufferable, and Shyeel had joined her teasing me and demanding details.

I'd lasted three days before I'd challenged him to a sparring match, pummeling him down three matches out of three. He'd apologized after that, and I'd accepted it. I only wished that I could shut Illyan up the same way, she'd crossed her massive arms afterwords and all but dared me to do try it.

Ayle hadn't been any help. She thought the entire thing was all too amusing.

"Gather up." Her rough voice called once she'd reached the portable holo-table in the center of the room, taking the only chair beside it. "I have good news and bad news."

"I'm guessin' more oh the latter." Callada Weshan drawled, her Nevosian accent thick as ever. "All we seem t'get."

Our Commander blinked her lower eyes irritably. "Unfortunately yes, so we will begin there. The first is likely expected, the storm will be here before the mission is complete, and will effectively trap us on planet until it passes."

Dietrich grunted. "There's what, just the one outpost left?"

"It's four hours away." Ayle shook her head slightly. "Not enough time for Kaste to get a company there and back before it hits. They'll deal with it once the blizzard passes, while we and the other companies begin loading up."

"We sure the storm is bad enough that ships can't punch through?" Shyeel asked, leaning on Callada in a familiar fashion that all but told me what the pair of them had been doing.

"Cruisers could hold position." The Batarian woman's low voice became dry. "Do you know where we can dock them to board?"

The scarred Asari held up a hand in surrender. "Just asking."

Ayle dipped her head slightly in polite acknowledgment, her lower eyes flicking over to me. "To balance the scales, some good news. The Lady Warlord's primary battle fleet engaged the Blood Pack and pirate forces above Redcliffe, and by all reports has dealt a significant blow to them. Zaen's bondmate has been confirmed as dead, killed when her flagship was destroyed."

I let out a whistling breath. "She was their best Admiral, right?"

"She was. The remainder of his fleet has withdrawn into the outer system to regroup. The first waves should be landing within the next Omega day."

My head bowed a little as I breathed. I wanted to be there, but... shit. Krom wasn't going anywhere, and from what her people had told Jarik he wasn't about to leave. Apparently he and Zaen had some kind of relationship, maybe they were krannt or something. The Blood Pack Warlord wouldn't just let him leave his capital while it was under attack.

We had time, I just had to keep reminding myself of that.

"More good news, Cieran has come through for us." Ayle gave me a polite nod of thanks that I returned respectfully. "A combat medic on loan from the Eclipse will be waiting for us on Redcliffe. She will be attached to Squad Three."

Thul rumbled from where he stood. "Cie?"

"Lieutenant Washana." I gave him her name. "Maiden, I fought with her father on Korlus during the Blue Sun War, and worked with her on Illium a few months later. She's young but solid enough in a fight."

The former priest grunted in approval. "If you consider her capable, then I do not foresee having any issues."

I gave him a tiny nod of respect, "Take care of her, please. She's sort of a friend and I was fond of her father."

He gave me a much deeper, left-leaning bow. "I will endeavor to do so my friend."

"Any other good news?" Shyeel prompted, rolling her eyes a bit at Thul and I's formality. "Or we straight into the bad crap?"

Ayle gave her a reproving glare with her lower eyes that bounced off the Asari's branded skin. "I have lost contact with the Kethens."

Every other Reyja'krem, including me, winced at that. Clearing my throat, I spoke quietly into the awkward silence that followed. "What was the last thing you heard?"

"That they were finishing their mission on Xentha, and would attempt to be on Redcliffe before we arrived." She stated simply, her lower eyes dropping. "I do not wish to believe that the SIU could take them from T'Ravt's capital, but I must admit that it is possible."

"Athame's ass." I breathed, a tight anger in my chest. I didn't know either of the Turians, but they were Reyja'krem dammit. I was sick and tired of hearing about others being hunted down like rabid varren to be carted off to the Hegemony, to be executed to accelerate how quickly that nation was falling apart. "Anyone else in favor of setting up a trap when we get to Redcliffe?"

"You will hear no argument from me." Thul rumbled, his normally pleasant tones dark and hard. "Commander?"

Ayle nodded tightly. "I have a few plans I wish to discuss with the Colonel, but I agree. It is past due that we reminded the SIU that we are not prey to be hunted at their leisure."

"Canna argue with tat." Callada murmured, "But we canna forget Krom."

"We won't." The Batarian agreed. "But we can't hunt him if those _chenethic_ assholes are pursuing us. Both are too dangerous to risk dividing our attention. As I said, I'll speak with Kaste and see if he is willing to lend us some additional manpower to deal with them."

There was... something odd about Ayle that I only realized in that moment. Her lower eyes might have been moving as she spoke to focus on whomever she was talking to, but her upperset was locked onto something behind me and Voya. More than that, she was growing more and more tense by th emoment, her hands dipping beneath the holotable where they could easily yank the rifle off of her back.

A cold chill went through me, and I casually adjusted myself, as if I was simply tired of standing in the same place.

The only thing behind us was Glich, the mech still motionless, still silent. I felt myself frowning, wondering what she...was...

Glitch wasn't looking at us. At any of us.

Its single red eye was locked onto the wall on my right, over by the small generator that we'd setup to power our tools. It was an old thing that let out a dull, background hum of electrical power, but was otherwise unremarkable.

My right hand slowly dropped to the pistol on my belt, and I was suddenly, acutely aware of my lack of armor. Athame, Voya was the only one actually in gear, everyone else was in casual dress.

Said Quarian noticed my sudden tension, her own small frame straightening in alarm, hands dropping to rest on the knives on her own waist. "Cieran?"

Everyone else had gone silent, frowning at the three of us before they started flickgin their own gazes around, wondering what had set us all off. It didn't take most of them long, their eyes finding Glitch's unwavering stare that wasn't directed at anyone in particular.

"Callada?" Ayle murmured quietly.

The Asari frowned in the direction of the generator, half-closing her eyes as she relied on her other senses. "Canna read nothin' over that damned motor, too much energy in t'air."

Which was exactly why anyone who'd snuck in beneath a cloak of some kind would have gone over there, to conceal themselves from our Asari's short-range ability to sense electrical fields. Tactical cloaks were too expensive for pirates, especially ones that could apparently last this long. I mean, shit, this was Spectre level gear. Even the SIU would have a hard time affording even one set.

I couldn't imagine someone like Tela Vasir hunting us just for kicks... but one asshole might have.

Krom wouldn't have any compulsions about blowing millions of his employer's credits to send assassins after us, especially if he knew he was about to be penned in on a world with little chance to escape. If I were him I'd be sending killers after everyone who I thought was about to come after me. "Glitch, silent mode off."

"Hostiles detected. Permission to engage." It promptly intoned, still staring.

Whoever was over there was either confident that they could take us even though we were now alerted, or supremely assured that whatever was concealing them could hold up to intense scrutiny. I licked my lips, "Head count, this room."

"Twelve friendlies, four hostiles. Requesting permission to-"

"Engage!" Ayle snapped, rising in a smooth motion and seizing the holotable with both hands as she did. It hit the ground in a clatter, giving her and the others a tiny bit of cover even as the unarmed Juggernaut mech suddenly thundered into motion. The rest of us became blurs of motion, most of us drawing weapons and starting to scatter, heading for what cover our cargo crates and boxes provided. Illyan showed more sense than the rest of us, seizing Jarick in a single massive paw and hauling him as she moved to get Glitch between her and whoever was against the wall.

A living opponent would have had problems with the sudden movements, with the nearly full ton of psychotic combat mech bearing down on them, with ten guns pointed in their direction.

But I'd been wrong. Our attackers hadn't been sent by Krom.

There was a screeching whine of electronic noise, and then four towering figures were suddenly revealed when blue-white flashes of light shot out from their weapons. The sound was distinctive, a kind of dull, crackling whine that would stay in my head for the rest of my life.

Someone, a Batarian, screamed in sudden pain when a plasma shotgun found its target. A higher pitched Asari yowl followed, and I felt my teeth grind as my friends were hurt.

And then I couldn't hear anything, because a fuck-ton of gunfire sounded off in an enclosed space, and I didn't have my helmet to protect my ears.

My pistol bucked in my hands, my aim wasn't the best since I was still moving, but the towering Geth Hunter was hardly a difficult target at this range. Orange tracers snapped out to slam into barriers, the AI platform rocking back from the heavy shots as its flashlight head whipped in my direction. Another pistol, Voya's Acolyte, struck home before it could fire, shorting out its shields and making it twitch violently. Assault rifles and shotgun rounds took it down in the following breaths, with another shriek of electronics and tortured metal.

It's companions were still upright though, and still shooting.

One had spun to deal with Glitch, bounding backwards to try and stay out of the mech's reach. It's shots wouldn't take the heavy mech down anytime soon, but it kept the VI focused on it while the other two started ruthlessly advancing, clearly intent on killing as many of us as possible in our moment of weakness.

Voya wasn't having any of it.

The armored Quarian wasn't moving with me towards my armor, towards cover. She was racing towards the ancient enemy of her species, her long white hair almost pluming out behind her as she ran. Both of her arms shot up, armored plates covering her face when one of the Geth spun to engage her.

I felt my lips pull into a snarl that I couldn't hear over the ringing, my feet skidding to a stop as I settled into a proper shooter's stance. The machine and I shot at about the same time, my incendiary rounds whipping past my friend to smack into its barriers, while it's shot slammed center-mass into Voya. Her barriers held, barely I thought, but they did.

She slid into a sudden right-to-left bobbing motion that had the machine overcompensate, most of its next shot ricocheting off the armor on her right arm but missing the weakened shields over her chest. A snap-shot from her Acolyte smacked into the thing's head, the Geth actually flinching when it's sensors were disrupted. Then her pistol was clattering to the ground, and her knives were in her hands.

I left her to it, barely noticing as she actually dove between the thing's legs and stared slicing at hydraulic cables and exposed bundles of myomer fiber.

The other Geth was still moving, staggering as the rest of the unit focused fire, trying to bring the heavy machine down, and a new noise had become audible even over the gunfire.

Alarms. The base alarms were shrieking.

There were more of these things in the base.

Bringing my aim around, I blasted at the stumbling, damaged Hunter along with everyone else. It managed another shot, if it hit a target I didn't see it, and then it was down.

Which just left the one playing keep-away with Glitch. The Geth slowed to a sudden stop, as if evaluating its options, then it spun right and fired off a snap-round a millisecond before the Juggernaut mech slammed a fist into the other machine, driving it into the ground like a nail. It kept pummel ling until there wasn't anything left but trashed metal and leaking gray fluid.

I sank to one knee, gasping for air as the adrenaline rush faded and exhaustion sank in.

"Report." I had to shout to hear myself.

Someone, Callada, waved a hand as she dove over the holotable. Swallowing, I forced myself upright, staggering in pain before a tiny figure was against my side, throwing my right arm around her shoulders to help me move.

The pain made me glance down. My right shin was coated in blood, a throb making me grind my teeth. I didn't think it had hit bone, otherwise I wouldn't be able to stand. A near-miss really, it must have happened in the first volley and the adrenaline had pushed it out of my mind to be dealt with later. A flesh wound, albeit a painful one. I'd be needing my cane again for a while.

I murmured a thanks that I didn't think that Voya couldn't hear, my companion helping me limp forwards to see the damage.

Ullak was... gone. He must have been hit in the first round because his gun was still collapsed in his hands, he hadn't even been able to properly draw the rifle to defend himself.

Shyeel was crouched in a corner, binding a thigh in quick motions, holding a screwdriver in her mouth to bite down on. Her eyes were scrunched shut in obvious pain, but if she could manage that she probably wasn't in any real danger.

The others... goddess. No one else was dead, yet, but goddess.

Hesh's dark skin was pale as Thul frantically applied medigel to the other man's stomach, using their shirts to try and staunch the bleeding. The cocky, sarcastic Batarian had fallen in front of Ayle, he'd taken a shot meant for his Tarath'shan when the second to last Geth had flanked her make-shift piece of cover.

Just behind him, Callada and Dietrich were already working on our Commander. Ayle was still conscious, but was in obvious agony. All four of her eyes were pinched shut with pain as our newest members bound tourniquets around her right leg and her arm. Her leg was worse than mine, her tanned skin broken to show torn muscles where the blood was still spilling out.

Her arm... I had to swallow and look away from what was left of it. She wouldn't keep what was left of it, even if she lived.

Ayle... goddess, just a few weeks ago we'd...

I found myself moving to sit beside her, a hand touching her broad forehead, the ringing finally fading enough for me to hear properly. "Ayle."

"Cie." She managed to hiss my name, her upper eyes opening to slits. "Hit?"

"Shin. Hurts, I'll live."

"Hurts." A dark breathy laugh that made her scrunch her face in pain. "Weak human."

"That wasn't what you said on the flagship."

"No." Her lips twitched a little. "It... wasn't. Pillars... stop, looking like...that. I'll... shit, I'll live."

Callada glanced at me, and gave me a tight nod. She at least thought so, and I found my chin jerking up a little. "The... alarms are going off. We have to find out what's going on."

"Go." She commanded, "My... my cadre?"

I flicked my eyes up in time to see Thul slump, a hand reaching down to gently close two sets of eyes as his mouth moved in a quiet prayer.

Ayle saw my expression and seemed to slump. "Take... command Cie."

Command. Athame's motherfucing azure... no, Cieran. Don't think. Survival takes priority right now, you can break down again later.

A sharp breath escaped my mouth as I nodded tightly, flicking my eyes around as I stated speaking. "Shyeel, get over here and help Callada. Dietrich, Illyan, Thul, armor and guns. Kid, you remember how to bind wounds?"

"Y-yes sir." The kid stammered, emerging from behind Glitch's towering bulk. "I can h-help them."

I gave Ayle another short glance, then grabbed Voya's arm to haul myself up.

"Cie, your leg."

"Can wait." The pain was fading beneath an all too familiar tide of anger. "If it hit an artery I'd be dead by now. Get on the network, find out what the fuck is going on and where the fuck the Geth came from."

Her glowing eyes blinked, narrowed, then nodded slowly. She brought her omni-tool up with one hand but helped me limp over to my power armor even as she read and flicked through what she could find.

"We're under full attack." She reported as I pulled my arm off of her shoulders, punching at the console on my armor's side to open it up. "Infiltrators have hit levels one through five, and two Geth dropships made an airborne pass outside of the main gate. The cruiser in orbit blasted them with her broadside guns but not before they dropped off nearly two companies, plus a pair of Colossi. The defenses are barely holding, the tank crews can't get to their vehicles, the Hunters are keeping them out."

Son of a..."That's our priority then." I growled, "Kaste?"

"Wounded but alive, an Asari in the CiC detected the infiltrators and opened fire before they could get close enough for a clean shot."

That was something. If they'd taken out the command center this fight would have already been over, they could have deactivated the environmental controls and sealed the internal hatchways. Half the regiment probably would have frozen to death within an hour without the heaters keeping the crippling cold at bay.

Getting into my power armor was an exercise in pain on levels I scarcely knew existed, but I bit my tongue and didn't let out a sound as I clambered up and then dropped myself into it. In hindsight I should have taken a moment to put some medigel on it just for the anesthetic, but it was a bit late for that now.

The armor's engine thrummed to life as the chest plate retracted to seal me inside, my HUD flickering to life, and my communications promptly lighting up as panicked transmissions from the regiments various units began to flood in without Jarick to manage the incoming stream.

"- _can't get inside!"_

 _"If you don't we're going to lose the outer gates!"_ A gruff Turian snarled at whoever the first speaker was. " _Reform and get your plated ass-end in there!"  
_

There was a chirping sound of a charged Turian swallowing. " _Yes sir."_

"This is Reyja'krem Kean." I cut into the line, "I'm leading my unit to the surface hanger. I need a report on anything between our room and there."

A pause, then the Colonel's aged voice came back. " _Kean, you have a clear path to corridor two, but the Geth have established a kill zone. At least five of the invisible types, along with three that are bouncing around too fast for my people to track."_

"Keep your people back until we arrive, we'll smash through." I jerked my eyes around, seeing everyone but Voya still yanking armor plating on. "We need a medic, our Commander is down."

" _You'll have to get her to the medbay, we have no orderlies to send."_ He replied bluntly. " _I'm sorry, our casualties our mounting."_

I resisted the urge to snarl. Kaste was only looking out for his own people first, I couldn't blame him. "Understood." Cutting the chatter off, I switched to my external mic. "Callada, they can't get a medic here. You have to stabilize her and get her to the medbay."

"She'll get there." The other Reyja'krem promised, her drawl fading into something closer to Thessia's light tones.

Resisting the urge to file away the odd change in accent, I nodded invisibly inside my cocoon and then worked my mind through a quick plan and then laid it out. "Voya, Glitch, follow me. We're moving now. Thul, everyone else is under your command, get them moving as soon as you're ready."

"Warning. This unit is not armed." Glitch reminded me even as I lumbered forwards, heading towards the large door.

Right, we hadn't unloaded it's weaponry yet, and hadn't been planning on doing so until we were sure the thing wasn't going to kill anyone by accident.

"Make do with melee." Voya ordered, moving in quick little strides and then bounding up to grab the back of my armor much as Jack had once done, holding herself in place with some difficulty as she rode on my back. There was something wild and ecstatic and almost lustful in her voice, as if we'd just killed a legion of slavers who'd preyed on other Terminus Quarians. "Let's go."

Oh yeah, Quarians and Geth. Even her offshoot race must have loathed the machines that had driven them to Xentha, forced them to flee to a place where they could be preyed upon and conquered and exploited. Apart from our losses, she was probably having the time of her life right now.

I lead the mech out into the hallway, finding it mostly empty. It made sense, the barracks were on the other side of the base, in the western wing, along with the CiC. Most of the internal combat would be over there and near the hangers in the southern section. The Geth's plan probably hadn't been all that complicated. Infiltrate the base, take out our environmental controls and/or command center, and preferably smash our hangers as well. Then they could withdraw back and leave the onrushing storm and the planet's bitter cold to finish us off.

We lumbered down one hallway, stopped to bark at control to unseal an airtight door, moved through it and let it slam shut after us to keep the air pressure in the rest of the base, and then kept moving.

I heard the fighting a good minute and a half before we got to the wide corridor that lead to the surface hanger. The familiar chatter of guns clashing with the odd whining, pitching noise of Geth weaponry.

Growling, I pushed my legs as best I could, sill ignoring the throbbing pain in my leg. As much as I appreciated the thick armor plating around me, I again wished that I'd designed the thing to be a little faster.

Troops and tank crews were crowded in the hallway, the former in full armor and the latter in lighter suits that simply protected them from the hostile atmosphere. Both groups got out of our way as we thumped past them, a ragged sound of approval sounding from the mixed Turians and Batarians that made up the bulk of their members.

Soldiers trailed into our wake, barely visible in my rear camera as Voya adjusted her body from where she was hanging. Gltich spared them a glance, as if deciding whether or not they were enemies, then swung its boxy head forwards when Voya snarled a command at it.

Then we were moving past them, past a smaller group confined near a doorway, their guns flashing as they engaged the enemy, their helmets jerking as our heavy steps carried us on.

My left arm swung up, fire from Geth shotguns and the odd, whining shots from the hopping things slamming into it as I entered the open. If I'd been outside of my exoskeleton, the shots would have been deadly, even with my normal plating. But with the power armor... it was more annoying, than anything else.

They didn't have the firepower to stop me, and I knew it. From the way the machines seemed to lock up for a moment, the AI's reached a consensus that agreed with me.

Swinging my shield like a battering ram I slammed the first Hunter out of my way, sending a few hundred pounds of metal to crash and break against a wall while my gun thundered in my other hand, sending a second down to the ground as it broke apart beneath the heavy rounds.

One of the Hunters flickered into invisibility, and apparently tried to get behind me. Glitch didn't let it, the homicidal mech grabbed at nothing with both hands, and then tore the smaller machine into pieces as the camo system failed. It kept both halves of it in its hands, and lumbered after another Geth that was falling back, apparently ready to beat the thing to death with the pieces of the other.

From her spot on my back, Voya was all but laughing her ass off as she fired her pistol wildly, somehow staying in place as I moved.

The hoppers bounced around a few more times, took a few more wild shots, and then bounded down and into the hanger.

I pursued them, along with the veritable swarm of the Warlord's troops that had followed us in. We chased them out of the hanger entirely, the Geth vanishing into the snow outside, a few stray shots from the external defenders cut down one but missed the others.

Voya's amusement faded once she got a good look at the full on battle still raging outside, and the sight in the distance. Her throat exhaling a dark sound as she spoke. " _That_ is a wall of snow."

"Yeah." I agreed quietly, slowing to a stop and lumbering off to one side. Behind us the crews were busy jumping into the regiment's dozen or so light tanks, starting them up with rumbles and frantically preparing to drive out to help drive off the lumbering Geth pseudo-tanks. It would be a rough fight, we might have better positions but the Geth still outnumbered us, but at least with the armor on the way the troops outside would be able to have faith that they were delaying the enemy for something more than hope.

But ahead of me, beyond the chaotic battle of quadrupedal machines and trenches, was... a wall of white. It had to be kilometers high, and I could see swirls and flashes of lightning even though the storm still had to be several hours away. The front of the blizzard was closer than that, swirling and clawing at the ground in a way that would kill us if we didn't get back inside within an hour or two.

I found myself pursing my lips as I stared at the blizzard, then shook myself and got my thoughts straight. "Glitch, return to corridor two. Eliminate any Geth that attempt to enter. _Only_ Geth."

"Affirmative Master Kean. Withdrawing to prior position, sentry protocols active. Hostiles classified as 'Geth'." The VI, still carrying the pieces of Geth in either hand, turned and obediently headed back the way we came.

Rane would have been embarrassed about her creation's viciousness, but there would have been an undercurrent of satisfaction at its effectiveness.

The armor's eezo core fluctuated a little as Voya finally hopped off, the Quarian seeming all the smaller next to my bulk. "Cie, we going out there or what?"

"When Thul gets here. After the tanks move out." I exhaled and had to swallow against a wave of pain and nausea. My limits were apparently farther than most people's, but I as just about at them. Adrenaline and focus only went so far before your body told both of them to shut the fuck up because _pain_. "Kaste, this is Kean. Your tank bay is secure."

" _I have heard, you have my sincere gratitude."_ The old Turian sounded as exhausted and pained as I probably did. " _Please keep that location secure from further infiltration, reinforcements are incoming."_

I blinked once. "Reinforcements? Did another regiment arrive in orbit during the fighting?"

" _Yes and No._ " Something in his tone told me he wasn't thrilled, which set off alarm bells in my skull. " _They will be bunking with us during the storm, and then we will assist them in eliminating the Geth base once it passes."_

"Colonel... they aren't loyal the Lady Warlord, are they?"

He let out an annoyed, almost chocking sound. " _The battle revealed our base, the Lady Warlord will have to abandon it regardless if I let them in or not. Killing them after they offered their aid would be dishonorable, I would have thought you understood that."_

"Testy much?" I growled back. "I didn't say crap old man, and I'm not in the habit of doing shit like that and you know it. Even if I was, T'Ravt wouldn't stand for that kind of action and I bloody well know it. She'd have us both killed for dishonoring her like that."

A long pause, when he spoke again his voice was a bit chagrined. " _My apologies, my subordinates are.. not thrilled with the arrangement."_

There were very few groups I could imagine the troops of a Warlord not being happy with, especially in this region of space. "The Alliance then?"

" _Sort of."_

A heavy bang against my chest was Voya's way of drawing my attention, one of her arms pointing at something in the distance. My eyes narrowed as I focused, able to see a dark wedge that was streaking along the stormfront, as if the torrential winds wasn't anything that could possibly bother the vessel. It swung around towards us, lowering to almost hug the glacial plain as it whipped forwards with a sudden surge of acceleration.

Lasers and missiles flashed in the air, slamming viciously into the Geth formations as the ship roared over our heads, the frigate going into another impossible bank, preparing to swing around for another pass. The Geth had all swung to hurl fire after it, other armatures moving to try and pen in our tanks before they could get out to join the scattered trench-lines still under fire.

They probably never even noticed the pair of air-dropped vehicles that floated to the ground behind them, the human tanks opening fire at extreme range in rapid, repeating blasts while their drivers slammed them into gear. The Geth's retaliatory fire missed when the things lurched into rapid motion, occasionally becoming airborne as tiny jets hurled them out of the way of incoming shots.

Makos. They were Makos. Which meant... oh son of a bitch.

"Ciearn? Can you hear me?" Voya's voice had the annoyed tones she got when I hadn't noticed her trying to get my attention.

"Yeah." I groaned and let my head slump as I sagged into my restraints. "Tell Thul to stand down, our guests and the tankers can handle the rest."

I could picture her blinking in confusion without having to glance down. "Who are they? Alliance?"

"Something like that." I said with an exhausted a sigh, feeling as if weights were coming down onto my shoulders. Everything that had happened today, the worry for Ayle, the nature of the new arrivals, the pain in my leg... Goddess, hadn't this been enough... I just... Goddess. My head shook slightly, the words coming out as little more than a mumble. "Hunting Geth in the Verge sound familiar to you?"

There was a single beat, and then her voice turned as cold as the air around us. "Oh. _Her_."

"Yeah." Glancing up, I watched as the SR-1 _Normandy_ screamed overhead once again, heralding yet more complications in my life. "Her."

* * *

**Silent Witness**

I trailed in Cie's wake, trying not to notice how slowly he was moving even with his trick cane. Every other step was a limp, a weakness I knew he would never show if he wasn't so tired. And exhausted. And about to break down entirely.

My forked tongue slid over my lips, wetting them slightly inside of my mask. A nervous habit that I hated, but couldn't control. I always did it when I was thinking, but at least now I could hide it beneath my...

I slumped my shoulders as I realized that I'd nearly been _grateful_ for wearing the fucking thing.

Shaking myself, I forced my thoughts back onto the actual topic at hand. Namely the only real friend I had. He was hiding his mental issues well, as well as I thought a human could. Probably his former lover's pounding the odd Batarian mannerisms into him, they were better at concealing things than his own species. But I knew him well enough to see the signs. The slow blinks, the tiny slump to his normally rigid posture, an almost imperceptible slur curling around his crisp accent.

No... he wasn't about to break down. He already was. Whatever walls he'd erected in his mind, and I knew they were there, were shattering beneath everything that had happened today. Happened on Kirkwall. They weren't breaking down quickly, but they were falling apart all the same. And when they broke down entirely, when the nightmares that kept him awake and puffing on his pipe visited him while he was conscious...

Keelah, if I didn't get him out of sight soon... Ancestors preserve me, it wouldn't be pretty.

"Cieran. Stop walking." I growled, wishing I could take the stupid mask off so that I could glare at him properly. "And sit your pale ass down so that I can bind your leg."

"I'm fine."

My throat vibrated as I growled again. I could have said something to him, but he was hopeless when he got into a mood like this. So instead I took matters into my own three fingered hands.

Accelerating a bit, I timed my move against his movement, lashing out at his cane with a quick kick. The metal rod swung in between his legs, tripping him up as he stumbled with an Asari curse that he was fond of. Grunting with effort, I shifted in front of him, twisting myself around and grabbing his belt as I did.

He wasn't all that heavy despite his height, and was tired on top of that. There was barely any resistance when I swung him around and slammed him into the hallway's wall, drawing a grunt of effort from me and a deeper one of pain from him.

"Sit. Down." I enunciated each word, just in case the impact had rattled his brains, such as they were. "Or do I need to kick you in the shin?"

Cieran glared at me, and I had to fight not to take a step back and away from him. I had no idea how he managed to do that so severely with his little, pale green eyes, but he did. "Bitch."

If I'd had my mask off I would have looked down my nose at him. Since it was on, I swallowed, gathered myself, and narrowed my eyes in a glare of my own while I crossed my arms. "I can take you even if you're healthy. You aren't. Now, are you going to let me take care of your leg, or do I need to beat you up first?"

He kept on glowering at me, but sat his pale ass on the ground all the same. I dropped to a knee, inspecting his blood soaked pant leg and doing me best to ignore his irritation. I knew he wasn't actually mad at me. If he was there would have been far more cursing, more glaring, and he'd have fought me instead of sitting.

"You shouldn't have been walking on this." I chided him, carefully peeling the once blue pant leg back. Honestly I was more stunned that he was able to walk at all. The shot, a piece from one of the Geth's damned shotguns, had pierced the fleshy bit of his pale calf. "Keelah."

"We were busy, remember?"

I flicked my eyes up to glare at him. Mine wasn't bad either, he shut up and glanced away, his long mane shifting a bit. It was the only thing about his appearance I actually liked, sort of. The color was annoying, I liked it better when he had it dyed.

Shifting my attention down, I took a closer look at his wound, realized I couldn't tell how bad it was with all of his fluids leaking out, then growled as I yanked a wipe from the tiny case I'd grabbed from our rooms. Blood, both dried and wet, soaked into the cloth as I worked it against his skin. Cieran's jaw worked as he clenched his teeth against pain, refusing to let even a sound come out of his throat.

Exhaling, I searched for a topic to distract him from what I was doing. "What are we going to do about Shepard?"

It was the wrong thing to ask, I knew it as soon as the words passed my stupid lips. His mouth curled in a tiny, displeased twitch. "Avoid her, obviously."

"Let's assume she doesn't cooperate with that plan."

Another twitch, this one in his cheek, a familiarly annoyed motion. "The same as last time. Keep her alive, avoid revealing anything... _don't_ piss her off."

I flinched a little at the reminder of Carastes and The Circle. Those sons of bitches had had it coming, but that wasn't an argument I wanted to bring up again. He'd made his point the last time. "All right. So once I finish cleaning this, what do we do?"

He blinked. "Didn't I tell you?"

My throat worked as I swallowed, he was honestly asking that question. "No. You haven't said a word since we left the storage room." Fifteen minutes ago, give or take.

"Oh. Shit." A tight exhale made his chest heave. "Weare going to check on Ayle and Shyeel, make sure the medics are doing their jobs. I did tell Thul to go meet with Kaste, right?"

"You did." At least, I thought he had. He'd spoken with the priest about something or another, I'd been more focused on grabbing the medical crap I was currently using. But he didn't need to know that little detail right now. "Why?"

There might have been a shrug, but I was more focused on his wound now that I could see it. Red, fleshy meat was exposed through broken skin, the muscle torn more than a little bit. "Giving him our status, asking for updated plans when the storm passes, making sure he keeps guards in the hanger and inside the front doors even with the blizzard."

I nodded absently, grabbing the only packet of medigel I had and tearing it open with care. He hissed in discomfort when I poured it inside him, very careful to make sure that every little bit got inside. Still, the anesthetic built in would help for the next part, but I'd have to give it a few moments to kick in. "Probably a good idea."

"He's probably already doing it." Cieran kept on muttering, as if I hadn't spoken, visibly not thinking about what I was about to do. "He seems competent for an old Turian, a good thing. We'll need him to be solid on Redcliffe."

Carefully pulling the bandage roll from the little bag, I unrolled it a little, glancing up at him. His eyes closed, and he gave me a tight nod. I pinched the wound shut by virtue of pressing that part of his calf in towards his shine, and his face tightened in suppressed agony. Then I quickly worked on binding it that way, wrapping the white cloth around and around until I'd used the entire thing.

"Done." I murmured. "We need to get you off your strange feet."

"My feet aren't strange."

"Strange and ugly. Just like Asari's." I insisted. "And you need to be off of them."

"I'm fi-"

"Cieran. Kean." He froze when I intoned his name with a snarling growl. I couldn't say it like Rane'li had. _She_ could have gotten him to sit down and shut up without throwing him around. A word and a subservient yet somehow irritated look and he'd have eaten out of her hand. Dammit, she'd just had to go and die on us... this big idiot just hadn't been the same without her. "I'll check on Ayle and Shy, you can go to our rooms and lay down."

"Voya... do you honestly think I can sleep right now?"

No... probably not. Maybe if I was there to hold his oddly cool body he could, if he smoked enough chehala or drank enough first. "Fine. Bar on this level, I'll meet you there with news."

His mouth quirked a little. "It won't be open."

I smacked his head. Lightly. Sort of. He deserved the bruise anyways. "Are you an engineer or not? Hack the stupid thing, blow the door apart, whatever gets you in and intoxicated faster."

"And I'm getting drunk why?"

"So you can fucking _sleep_!" I all but shouted at him. "Keelah but you're a stupid bosh'tet."

"Fine, fine!" He held a hand up in surrender, looking too amused for my comfort. I hit him again, and he let me, then I helped his gangly body back to its feet and got his cane back into his hands. "Let me know as soon as you get any news."

"I will." Reaching out, I touched his elbow before he could start limping the other way. "Cie. Shepard is here."

My human friend stilled. "I know what that means."

I licked my lips inside the safety of my mask again. "The... Matriarch's pet could have an accident in the battle. Or maybe we 'missed' a Geth inside the base. Either wouldn't be hard for me to pull off."

He stayed as he was, unmoving as he considered that. He wouldn't have when I'd first met him, when the strange human who spoke the Asari language and held himself like a Batarian had saved me from a living nightmare. But he wasn't the same person now.

Some of that was Rane's passing, but a lot of it... was just the Terminus. He was turning into something like me, as the time passed.

I didn't know how I felt about that.

"No." His voice was low but firm. "Not yet, not until we know her role in that bitch's game. Krom and I are free, she might be as well."

"Can I at least threaten her a little?" I pressed. "Would it hurt for her to know that we know she and that old bitch are up to something?"

Cie needed more time to mull over that, then he nodded very slowly. "No physical pain Voya, I mean it. But let her know there are people who know that T'Ravt is up to something, make sure to imply that it isn't good."

"It isn't." I growled at him. "Mind-raping isn't good Cieran."

"Fair point." He said that a lot. I resisted the urge to hit his stupid face, I hated those two words. "Right, go. I'll meet you at the bar. Get a hold of everyone else and send them my way... I think everyone could do with some alcohol right now."

Two more of us were dead, and Ayle was crippled. Everyone was going to pour liquor down their throats without bothering to breath unless I missed my guess... which would leave me stuck getting everyone back to our storage bay and the fold-out beds there.

I sighed as he turned away, limping towards the bar.

"Thanks for the help with my leg." He called back, a breath before I could call him an asshole for not saying so earlier. "I'll have your usual waiting."

He wasn't so bad for a human, but the damned brown hair still annoyed me. It had looked better black, I'd have to dye it while he slept. Illyan would help, she was a bitch but she'd be all for messing with him. It would annoy him, but he'd have that long-suffering grin in his voice...

It would help, just a little. It would have to do, I wouldn't be able to needle him about Ayle like I'd planned. Not with her injuries. Even I had my lines.

Sighing, I spun on a heel and started stalking towards the medbay, already picking through the words I'd use when I cornered whatever idiot the bitch had snuck into the other bitch's crew.

* * *

_**Next up is Operation: The Burdens II** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It never rains when it can pour, but we got our first little glimpse into Voya's head and I hope that it works out for everyone. Also, Shepard is back, so things will be... interesting in the next two chapters. The next one in particular, since it will be mostly a bar scene with the Silver Blades and the Normandiers interacting in... interesting ways. Also, things catch up to Cieran.
> 
> The next chapter is over halfway completed, and I hope to have it done by today. If the reviews keep rolling in, I'm hoping to have it able to post by tomorrow morning.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	23. Operation: The Burden II

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

**Operation: The Burdens II**

_Date: 02-25-2813_

_Location: Antibaar, Armstrong Nebula, outer Skyllian Verge_

* * *

The bar was dark and silent except for the sound of my breathing, the slight creak of my chair as I leaned into it, the occasional sound of glass coming to rest upon the metal of the table when I set my bottle of Illium rum down after taking long pulls from the bitter drink.

I liked the darkness, in that moment. It insulated me, let me ignore everything else around me, especially how stupid I probably would have looked if anyone had come in. My plain gray shirt, splattered with blood and fluid from Geth, my blue sweatpants rolled up to my right knee to expose white bandaging as thick as my finger. A black weapons belt with my pistol and tech launcher, and a dozen or so pouches to hold random things.

You think about weird things when you're having a mental breakdown. Stupid shit like what you're wearing.

"Get it together, Cieran." I muttered to myself, pointlessly closing my eyes as if that would help me concentrate. "You're in command until Ayle recovers."

"Heh. In command. Because you have _such_ a great record as a C.O."

I blinked for a moment, realized that I'd just answered myself aloud, turned a bit in place, and then let my head slam into the cold table. It hurt, which was fine. I deserved it.

A slow breath made my chest heave.

What the fuck was I supposed to do now? Logically I knew what came next. I'd take over until Ayle recovered, probably for at least a year or so. We'd finish up here, take out whatever Geth outpost existed, then head to Redcliffe. Once there, pray to Athame that the Turians had made it, integrate them into our team, and then start the hunt for Krom in earnest.

It sounded simple, easy.

Who knew how many more friends I'd lose along the way.

I closed my eyes and tried to focus on my breathing. First Marcus. Then Jack. Now Hesh and Ullak. Ayle was going to lose an arm, maybe a leg. She was going to be all but immobile for weeks or months and that was going to wear on her proud personality.

Typical. You break your rules about sleeping with someone you aren't attached to or going out with, and what happens? She almost fucking dies.

My hands curled into fists beneath the table as I resisted the urge to growl at myself. _Logically_ , the two events weren't related. The Geth had gone after Ayle because she'd obviously been our commanding officer, not because they knew or cared who I was. _Logically_ there wasn't anything I could have done to mitigate what had happened. Yes, I had vague memories of there being a side-assignment in the first game concerning the Geth, hunting them down, but I couldn't remember the exact system names. _Logically,_ I'd had no reason what-so-ever to expect anything worse than pirates and maybe Corsairs on this iceball.

Logic didn't change the fact that I, at the end of the day, was responsible for four people's deaths and the maiming of a fifth. If I wasn't so set on finding Krom, if I hadn't convinced Ayle and Shyeel to join me, they would have probably tried to sit the war out... they'd probably still be on Omega, relaxing and drinking and taking odd jobs here and there.

Who was next? Thul? Shy? Either of the new guys? Would an infiltrator kill Jarick?

I swallowed heavily. Voya or Illyan?

Goddess. What would I do if I lost either of them?

Reaching up, I grabbed for the bottle of rum. I needed more of it, needed something to wash that thought away before it consumed me. My left hand found the bottle after a moment of fumbling, and I tried to bring it up to my lips.

I couldn't. It was moving, but uncontrollably. The liquid was sloshing wildly, the bottle shaking with my hand as my entire forearm began to vibrate. The worst of it was in my wrist and fingers, it was suddenly hard to hold onto the glass.

Swallowing, I managed, barely, to set the half-empty thing back down, and stared at my hand in the dim light. My fingers kept twitching, almost curling and uncurling of their own accord while my wrist shuddered without any input from my conscious brain to do so.

They wouldn't stop. I tried to force them to be still, feeling my heart beginning to hammer in my chest as I realized that I didn't have control of my own hand anymore.

"Goddess." The word was little more than a breath as I tightened that hand into a fist and then pushed it against the table, leaning on it to make the shaking stop. Visibly that might have worked, but I could still feel the muscles straining and spasming, almost cramping. "That...that's not... this can't be..."

Sudden footsteps made me realize that I wasn't alone in the darkness, probably hadn't been for a few minutes, and then strong hands were grabbing my left forearm, prying it back and holding it tightly.

"Easy." Illyan's deep voice spoke, her tones the soothing ones you used with animals or mental patients. "Easy boss. You need to calm down, you need to relax."

"I... can't..." Shame mixed with terror at being caught like this. I looked away, twisting my head to send my long hair to cover my face. My breathing continued to accelerate, and I belatedly realized I was all but hyperventilating. "It... it... won't..."

"Breath Cie." My friend told me, still speaking quietly. "You're having a panic attack. You need to breath."

"I..."

Massive arms wrapped around my shoulders, and I felt myself being pressed against something warm that smelled like an ocean breeze. "Close your eyes and breath, don't talk."

That... seemed like good advice. I tried to follow it, squeezing my eyelids shut as I tried to get my breathing under control, tried to blot out the imaginary image of Illyan and Voya dead at the feet of a berserker as it laughed, drawing a knife to...

I shuddered violently with my entire body, Illyan letting out a quiet rumble as she tightened her hug as much as she could without hurting me.

I don't know how long we stayed like that. Her holding me while I shuddered. I felt sick, useless, ashamed... feelings that just seemed to make everything worse, to bring more reminders of how I'd failed before, how I could fail again. Of the people we'd lost, the things we'd done. The people we could lose, the things we might have to do.

"Cie." Illyan's voice was low, a rumbling thing I could feel. I blinked slowly, sucking in a slow breath and realizing that my heart rate was back to normal. That I wasn't gasping for air anymore. And that my face was pressed into the crook of the Asari's neck as she held me. "You back boss?"

"Yeah." The word was barely a whisper, and I had to clear my throat a bit. "How long?"

"Only ten minutes or so." Scaled skin touched my forehead, and I realized she'd turned her head so that she could rest her cheek against me. "It's just us and Voya in here, she's mixing you a drink right now."

"Already done." The Quarian corrected her, and I turned my head to see her arrive next to us, a pale drink in one hand. She'd removed her mask, and her glowing eyes were like tiny silver stars in the dim lighting.

Illyan had apparently pulled me out of my chair and onto the floor at some point, probably to make it easier to hold onto me and help me breath. She was sitting against a wall, with me more or less draped in her lap, upright only because both of her thick arms were wrapped around me.

"Come on Cie, drink some of this." I shook myself a little. It was taking too much concentration to stay in the moment, more than it should have. My left hand rose instinctively, only to pause as I stared at it. It was still, moving only when I commanded it to, looking as though it hadn't just gone through what I had.

Voya carefully took my wrist with her free hand, the long fingers wrapping around it as she pressed the cup into my hand with the other. I didn't think I needed her help to bring it to my mouth, but I let her all the same.

The cool taste of an Illium Moonrise nearly made me shudder in pleasure. There wasn't much, if any, rum in it, but that was probably on purpose.

"No rum." I murmured, glancing at the kneeling Quarian. "Short changing me?"

Something like a smile played on her lips. "You said my usual drink would be ready. It wasn't. You're lucky I didn't throw some ryncol in there."

My chest moved with the smallest of laughs. "Glad you didn't."

"You're glad." Illyan rumbled, still holding onto me. "She was supposed to make me a drink too."

A tiny gray nose turned upwards. "You're more than capable of making your own, or did your brain give up and decide to let your azure run the show permanently?"

My entire body shuddered, literally, with the growl that came from the huge Asari. "Oh, so it _is_ you sitting there. You've had your mask on so long I thought you were a lost pilgrim with all the whining you've been doing."

It was Voya's turn to growl, lips pulling back from ivory teeth to show off her double-set of canines. "Whining? You mean what _you_ do when you have to spend one night with just your hands for company?"

I sighed into my drink before Illyan could riposte. "Would you two just get a room and work it out?"

The reactions would have had me howling with laughter in any other situation. Voya stared at me in something like horror, her skin paling to something almost white before she made a gagging sound. Illyan shuddered and seemed to twist her head back and forth as if to get an image out of her head. "Cie, not cool!"

"Disgusting." Voya agreed, then made another face at realizing that the pair of them had just agreed on something.

I just shrugged a little, sipping some of the pale blue liquid and smiling a little. It was a bit forced, but just a bit. "News?"

Illyan stiffened a little beneath me, and Voya's face smoothed into something unreadable before she nodded slightly. "Good or bad first?"

"Ayle first."

Silver eyes blinked once, her forked tongue briefly appearing to lick her lips, then she nodded. "She's going to make it, but she won't be comfortable. There wasn't enough of her right arm to save, they took it off at the shoulder. Her right leg was better, they staunched the bloodflow and think they can replaced her lost muscles with myomer if we can get her to Xentha or Illium."

"Illium." I stated promptly. "The SIU won't be able to get to her there."

She nodded slightly. "That's what we thought. We can get her on an Eclipse transport from Omega. Everyone else is all right, if a bit roughed up. Shyeel's wound is just flesh, like yours. Painful but nothing that won't heal."

"Good." I breathed, nodding slightly before I took another sip from my drink, "Was that the good news?"

"Yeah." Illyan grunted, adjusting me a little, probably for her own comfort. "Bad news is we're rooming with the Spectre's people."

"We're _what_?"

"Kaste wouldn't let them dock their ship in the hanger, he thought it gave them too much leverage." Voya explained, her stiff hair rustling as she shook her head. "But he admits his own people are more likely to try something stupid than hers... but if they and us are in the same room..."

"The troopers won't want to piss us off." The Asari finished for her. "Plus it lets us keep a few eyes on them."

I wanted to groan and slump over... so I did, letting my skull thump into Illyan's collarbone. "Athame... that bitch up there really does hate us, doesn't she?"

"Perhaps you should stop swearing by her body parts?" Voya suggested brightly.

I gave a her glare that wasn't all that severe, then sighed again. "Any other bad news?"

"We thought that was bad enough boss."

It certainly wasn't good, that was for sure. And Illyan didn't even know the full extent of it. I sighed, "Yeah. Voya, can you round everyone up? Want to set some ground rules for tonight. And drinks."

She nodded, but hesitated before rising. "Cie... drinks?"

There was a warning, questioning tone in her voice that made me wince a little. "I won't be, don't worry about it."

"I'll make sure he doesn't." Illyan volunteered. "Don't worry."

" _You_ ' _ll_ watch over him? Might as well sign his death certificate right now." Despite her words, she stood up all the same, and seemed to give the Asari a very tiny nod of thanks or approval. "I'll be back."

And then she was gone, leaving me still sitting in my other friend's lap.

Tilting my glass back, I downed what was left of the drink, sighed, and stared at the bottom of the cup. Then I swallowed, "Illyan, I'm so-"

"Cieran." She cut me off, her voice quieter and more assured than I'd ever heard it. "Don't even start or I will beat the crap out of you. People break, it happens. You made it, you'll keep making it."

"You don't know-"

A hand the size of a plate grabbed the back of my neck and shook me a bit. "What the fuck did I just say?"

I shut up. It seemed to be a wise move.

There was a slow exhale as she took a moment to calm herself down. "I... shit. You'll make it. You always hold it together, even when anyone else would fall apart. And if you start to do this again, me and that little bitch will be here for you."

Something in my chest tightened, and then relaxed, and I didn't have the strength to avoid slumping against her chest. "I'm... still not sleeping with you."

It was the right thing to say. She let out a chocking laugh, the hand on my neck shifting to thoroughly fuck up my long hair. "Asshole. Fur covered, stupid, asshole."

"Oversexed, overmuscled bitch." I muttered back. "Let me up?"

"Can I at least get a kiss for loyally helping you through a traumatic experience?"

I rolled my eyes, the amusement helping the old walls firm themselves back up in my head. Pushing the pain and despair and worries back where they belonged, far away from my active thoughts. "You're insufferable."

"That's not a yes or a no boss." She teased, her own tones returning to their normal cockiness.

"No, it isn't." I agreed, carefully pushing myself off of her as best I could. I managed to get to one knee before a wave of vertigo nearly sent me back down, and a tremble shot down my left arm. I ground my teeth, very firmly told my body to fucking fall in line, and resumed attempting to stand.

My knee hit the ground a few moments later, and I bowed my head with a small gasp, trying not to throw up a half-bottle worth of liquor. Illyan's strong hands helped me on attempt number three, easily helping haul me back over to my chair where I collapsed with as much dignity as I could muster given the circumstances.

Goddess but I was exhausted. And my left arm had trembled a bit when I'd tried to use it for something more serious than holding a glass. Whatever that thing had been; panic, anxiety, a mental breakdown... my brain might have been slowly unfurling its sails but the rest of me was clearly not over it.

Illyan didn't say anything, just ruffled my hair again before grabbing my glass and heading towards the bar to refill it for me.

I focused on my breathing for a minute or two, making sure that my stomach was under control before I risked speaking again. "Why aren't you with everyone else?"

"So instead of thanking me you want to know why I'm here at all?" There was a scoffing noise. "Typical. If you must know the little bitch... um... shit, nevermind."

My eyes blinked as I glanced at her, then I shook my head wryly. "You weren't supposed to tell me she wanted you here?"

"No." She admitted, her broad features embarrassed. "She sent me a message and said to get my ass to the bar because you were about to collapse, I don't know how she knew ahead of time."

Voya had known that I was about to break down? Had I been that obvious?

I was trying to work through that bit of logic when the rest of the unit entered the bar, trailing in the Quarian's wake. She'd put her mask back on in the interim, hiding her expression from everyone. None of them were talking, an ominous silence filling the place as they all moved in to take chairs around the same table I was at. Once those were taken, the rest picked seats from nearby, turning them around to leave the entire unit in a broad semi-circle around me.

"Are you all right, Cieran?" Thul asked once everyone had taken their seats, and Illyan had brought me a new drink. "You do not look well."

"I'm..." It didn't feel right lying to everyone, in that moment, so I corrected my statement. "I'll survive. Have you all heard about Ayle?"

He gave me a polite nod. "Yes, Voya filled us in."

"Leaves you in command, right?" Dietrich rumbled, his intelligent eyes locked onto my face. "At least till she recovers."

"Until she does, yes." Resisting the urge to bow my head, I used my steadier right hand to tank a small sip from my drink. "If... I had better skills as a leader, with words of inspiration, I'd say something profound right now. Since I'm shit at it, and worse at talking about crap that bothers me publicly, I won't bother making an attempt that would just annoy you all."

Shyeel's scarred face twitched with amusement when she snorted. "Probably a good idea Cie. Stick with what you're good at, logic and planning and shit."

I gave her a tiny smile. "Very well. Thul, you're my exec and will run squad two. Shy, you're moving into his team. Callada, Dietrich, if you have any morale problems, talk with him. He's more capable of helping you than I ever will be."

Both of the new arrivals nodded, the Asari glancing at the Batarian speculatively. "Artisan Caste yeah?"

"Indeed." He gave the other Reyja'krem a polite bow of his head. "I was of the midcaste, a priest, before my exile. I have endeavored to stay true to the word of the Pillars. I understand that not all share my faith, and am flattered in my friend's confidence in my ability to assist any who wish to talk."

"No offense, but we barely knew 'em." Callada drawled, "Sucks, sure, but it ain't like I lost Deet here."

"That was more directed at future issues, should they arise." I corrected her rather tersely. She accepted the correction with a slight nod, wincing a little as she realized how she'd sounded. I waited until she murmured an apology, then moved on. "All right. The overall plan is going to stay the same, we're heading to Redcliffe once we're done here. Ayle will be transferring to an Eclipse ship on Omega, and going to Illium for treatment."

Thul and Shyeel both looked relieved, and Jarick bowed his head and murmured something thankful sounding.

"Now." Another exhale was required, and it was a fight to keep my spine straight against another wave of exhaustion. "As far as tonight goes. We're going to be stuck rooming with the Spectre and her crew. If any of you fuck with them or pick a fight, I'll use my power armor and punt you into the storm. Got it?"

A chorus of startled blinks and nods was the response to that. I glared at everyone in turn to make sure they got the message, then took a sip of my drink and moved onto what I hoped would be a better received idea. "We've got at least twenty hours, maybe more, where we're stuck in this base, so we're going to use them properly. Kid... Jarick, there's a kitchen through those doors. Indulge yourself."

The kid's bald head picked up as he blinked at me. "Sir?"

"Three courses, four, have as much fun in there as you want. Experiment, go wild, I'll cover the costs with Kaste." There was some more blinking, then he gave me a little smile. The easiest way to keep his spirits up was to let him cook, and I thought everyone could use a bit of extravagance right now. At least, whatever he could do with the bases's stores. "Illyan, you're on bar duty for drinks. Everyone else, I want anyone you know in the regiment and are friendly with to drop by. After today's shit... we could do with some down time."

Everyone stared at me for a few moments, then Voya let out a laugh and rocked her chair back onto its back legs. "Cards? I have my deck on me."

"I believe we'll use mine." Thul interrupted, a small smile on his face. "The pair of you do not need any assistance."

"Where's the fun in that?" Shyeel rolled her eyes, but she scooted her chair closer to the table all the same. "Credits? Start at twenty?"

We agreed, and things began to unfold from there.

Illyan moved back and forth from the bar, bringing out drinks, topping mine off though she made sure not to put any alcohol into it. Dietrich surprised us all by rolling his sleeves up and following Jarick into the kitchen, and the pair quickly began an almost vitriolic argument about the best way to cook steaks. The rest of us tucked in around our table while Thul dealt the cards, starting our usual game.

Others began to come in around when Jarick brought out the appetizers, salads in the Asari way and bread and cuts in the Batarian. The normal bartender turned out to be a young teal-skinned Batarian girl who looked like she was about to have a heart attack at seeing so many Reyja'krem in the same room. She rallied herself admirably, and quickly kicked Illyan out from behind her bar before taking over. Her timing was impeccable, as soldiers and technicians started to show up in waves.

The card game expanded to require another table to be pushed against ours, the stakes keeping the lower ranks away while drawing officers in like slasher-fish scenting blood. Most of them didn't last long, Shyeel, Voya, and I taking turns in appropriating their credits.

It was relaxing, in its own way. I could lose myself in the odds, in the planning. In the good food and the companionship. As a matter of fact I was feeling something close to my normal self when the tone shifted, especially near the door.

I felt my lips purse as someone massive became framed in the doorway, obviously arguing with someone who didn't want him in here. Leaning to my right, I muttered to Voya, her gleaming eyes narrowing behind her mask before she nodded and rose.

"Cieran?" Thul asked, splitting his eyes between the two of us.

"A pause, if you please." I leaned back in my chair, watching as the crowd parted before the tiny, strutting figure. Everything quieted as people realized that a confrontation was in order, and the self-appointed door guards were all too eager to leave the new arrival to Voya.

In another circumstance, it would have been a worrying sight.

Urdnot Wrex towered over the petite woman, a fact that seemed to bother her not at all as she strode right up into his personal space and craned her neck back to look up at him. One of her hands was visibly resting on a knife, but the other was between them, as if she was touching... something on her chest.

She was making sure he saw the necklace with its shards taken from Krogan crests.

The ancient being let out a low, rumbling noise, turning his head to stare at her with a single red eye. His voice easily reached every corner of the bar when he spoke, and what few conversation had carried on died at once. "You got something to say to me, Quarian?"

"Yes." Voya kept her voice low and her body tense. "You're welcome in here, Krogan. But if you start anything I'm taking a piece from your skull to add to my collection."

Even from here I could see his eye blink slowly, as if in realization. "You're from the Terminus. One of the trophy-takers from Xentha."

Her head dipped slightly. "Yes."

Wrex blinked again, then chuckled quietly. "Always liked working with your kind. Vicious, efficient, and you survive."

"Yes." She repeated. "Did you hear my message, Krogan?"

"I did." He shifted slightly, all but looming over her. "Here's mine. Call me Krogan again, and I'll take a trophy of my own. I have a name."

"Congratulations." You'd need a mop to wipe up the sarcasm dripping from the word. "You must be so proud to have something so precious as a _name_. Behave yourself or I'll take that along with your crest."

Then, as if he didn't outweigh her by more than a ton, she spun on a little heel and cockily strutted back towards me, as if daring him to try and attack her from behind.

The old battlemaster stared after her for a long moment, then threw back his head and _guffawed_. Tension seemed to drain out of the bar at the noise, the crowd shifting and parting in a new direction as he stomped over to the bar, still laughing to himself. Still, while his laugh had made everyone else relax, it made the muscle in my back tighten.

It's Wrex, I reminded myself very, very firmly. He's not a berserker, not one of the Blood Pack. Even better, he's going to the bar instead of to your table. Relax.

"You sure about this?" My mental mantra broke as I flicked my eyes to one of the regiment's Captains. The Turian's mandibles were flickering in obvious disgust. "He's a _Krogan_ working with an _Alliance_ bitch."

"He is our guest, and ally." My voice was quiet, but the murmuring crowd suddenly went silent again. I had to fight the urge to swallow against a wave of chaotic emotion that wanted to send me twitching and gasping to the ground again. "He will be treated as such, by all of you."

The Captain didn't speak for a long moment. "Fine."

I didn't like his tone, or trust it for a moment. "I think you've had enough to drink, Captain. Get out of here. Get some sleep."

Dark, predator's eyes narrowed at me. "You do not command me, mercenary. I don't care what Batarian title you think you hold, as far as I'm concerned you're just a hired gun with delusions of grandeur."

There was an almost sub-vocal hiss from about forty percent of the room, but he didn't seem to realize his mistake. Batarians, even exiles, took their castes, their rankings, and their titles very, _very_ seriously. And since most of the room was occupied by Batarians of either sex, it hadn't been a good move on his part to insult them even indirectly.

"Betherus." A Batarian wearing the rank markings of a Major growled viciously from his place across the table. "Shut the fuck up and go to your room. _Now_."

The Turian didn't look happy, not in the slightest, but a quick glance around showed far more faces glaring at him than supporting. He let out an annoyed, chirping sound, grabbed the money Shyeel hadn't taken from him, and stomped out.

He barely missed colliding with another new arrival, and I felt Voya's hand slip beneath the table to rest reassuringly on my arm as she took her seat on my right again.

Garrus Vakarian was towering, like most Turians, and I didn't have any problems seeing him over the mostly seated crowd. His head was on a swivel, as if his cop brain was being overloaded at being surrounded by so many mercenaries and pirates and other assorted scum, but he quickly locked onto where Wrex had created space for himself at the bar. It was hard to tell at this distance, but I thought he looked rather annoyed as he stalked over towards the Krogan.

"Thul." I glanced at my friend and tried to relax. "The next hand. This is supposed to be a relaxing evening, so let's not just sit around awkwardly."

It wasn't much but there was a slight chortle from the other players, and cards began to spin out as they were dealt. I accepted mine, glanced at them, and twitched my hands in a tiny gesture. Voya did the same, but Shyeel blinked her left eye twice as she folded her hands over her cards.

Her riches this round then, dammit.

I folded when it was my turn, settling back before glancing over at the bar. Garrus was haranguing Wrex about something, something to which the Krogan simply rumbled a single word in reply before slapping the Turian on the back and nearly driving him into the bar.

Vakarian staggered, shook his head, and seemed to slump before grabbing a chair for himself and ordering a drink of his own.

"Must be here to keep him out of trouble." Voya murmured to me, her own eyes locked on the same unusual pair. "I can't imagine him succeeding."

"Me either." I replied quietly. "The rest of them probably won't be far behind."

Which turned out to be an incorrect assumption. It was a good two hours before anyone else from the Normandy showed up, which was both a good thing and an annoying one. Good, in that by the time they arrived more than half of the regiment's soldiers and officers had cleared out, staggering back to their bunks. Annoying because I'd been about to call it a night and limp my ass back to our room to try and pass out.

It made it easy to see them when they arrived. A pair of women were in the lead, both sensibly wearing armor from the neck down, done in the same matte-black style that Shepard had used on Carastes. One was Shepard, I was fairly sure. I caught a glimpse of a vicious scar on her pale features before she turned away from me to say something to Liara.

The other though... the other wasn't Williams, which left just one person it could be.

The Chosen One was a short woman, almost young enough for me to call her a girl. She was strongly built for her size, and had light brown skin to go with hair as dark as Shepard's. It was even cut in the same fashion, a perfunctory, militaristic style. Her nose had been broken at some point in her past, but personally I thought the little notch gave her otherwise plain features a bit of personality. Showed that while she might look a bit meek and boring, she'd believed in something enough to fight for it at one point in her young life.

Next to me, I felt more than saw Voya lock onto the girl, probably already planning on how to isolate her from Shepard's flock. Still, I blinked as I realized that she'd drawn close enough for me to examine her in that level of detail. She was following in Shepard's wake, along with Liara. Kaiden, Ashley, and Tali had all split off towards the bar, but the Spectre was heading straight for us and... glaring at me.

Lovely.

Shepard had pale skin that went well with her boyishly short raven-black hair, and smoothly balanced features that lent her no small amount of attractiveness. She wasn't drop-dead gorgeous or anything, but she was by no means ugly. Her violet eyes helped there, lending her a bit of exotic flair otherwise missing from her European features.

But it was the scar that really demanded attention. It started near her left ear, curving thickly across her cheekbone, up and over her nose, and then tapered off just beneath her right eye. It was entirely uniform in shape and size, and I swallowed slightly as I realized that someone had to have very carefully dragged something very, very hot across her skin to leave a mark like that.

Either the gangs she'd run with as a kid had been severely hard-core, or she'd been tortured at some point in her life. Athame's ass, both were probably true.

"Lieutenant Commander Shepard." I tried for casual, but from the tiny wince in Voya's eyes I didn't manage it. "Welcome. Care to be dealt in? We have chairs open."

"Kean." There was a definite note of hostility in her tone. She wasn't happy to see me, how shocking. "It's Commander now. Or Spectre."

"Moving up in the galaxy." My right hand rose carefully and waved at the three seats to Voya's right that were unoccupied at the moment, their previous owners having been forced to flee with what credits we'd left them. "Sit, please. Your people will not be accosted here, provided they behave themselves."

She stared at me for several long seconds, then gave me a very tight nod.

Shepard took the seat directly beside my companion, while the Chosen One took the one beside Thul. Liara hesitated, then sat between them, her eyes wide and almost innocent as she stared at everyone at the table. The Chosen One wasn't much better, but she was at least doing a better job of hiding her naivete, not letting it radiate in waves like Aethyta's daughter was.

"Care to be dealt in?" Thul asked politely, his deep voice drawing their attention to him. "To open is one hundred."

Shepard shook her head slightly, "No, thank you."

He bowed his head in a tiny, neutral motion, and resumed shuffling. The Spectre eyed him for a moment longer, then glanced back at me. "I had hoped to never see you again, mercenary."

"Same." I replied distractedly, focusing on my cards mostly because I guessed my divided attention would annoy her. My hand was solid, for the first time in several rounds, and I twitched my fingers in a gesture to let Shyeel and Voya know I was in. "Heard your partner was killed."

Pale lips pressed together in a thin, bloodless line. "Yes."

Sore subject then. I waited for her to say something further, but the first round of betting passed without her saying another word. Tossing a few credit chits forwards, I exhaled and took a drink before speaking again. "What do you want Shepard? I know you don't like me so you wouldn't be sitting here if you didn't want something."

The Chosen One gave me a confused look, then flicked her brown eyes to Shepard, then away from both of us. If the Spectre noticed her subordinate's attention, she didn't show it.

"Information." The word was almost a mutter. She obviously wasn't happy about having to ask me, which I could understand, even if I was confused as to why she thought I might know anything of value to her.

I couldn't help but blink and tilt my head to show confusion in the Batarian way. "I'm not a broker Shepard."

"I know." Her voice became something that was almost a growl. "But you do have a Batarian title, you do work for two major Warlords. Men like that hear things."

Shepard wanted to know something from me? Curiosity demanded I ask what before I could even consider stopping myself. "What do you want to know?"

"The Geth." Should have guessed. "Everything you know about what they're doing in the outer Traverse and the Terminus. Any sightings of Saren's flagship."

I frowned at her a little. "Why not just use your own intelligence services for that? Wait..." Realization came with a memory of a prior war, and why I'd been sent to Omega at all. "The war has broken your communications with them, hasn't it?"

She didn't answer, but from her glower I took her silence as assent.

Well, why not. They were a pain in the ass for us as much as they were for her, giving her what little I knew wouldn't hurt anything. "This is just off the top of my head, but the Geth smashed through several patrol fleets and moved in strength past Omega on their way to hit you. Since then the Warlords have engaged several smaller groups, resupply fleets we think, trying to make runs through the secondary relay chains. To my knowledge Saren's flagship hasn't been spotted since the initial run."

Shepard blinked, obviously not having expected me to actually reply. She visibly rallied, then nodded professionally. "Outposts? Bases?"

"Three within T'Ravt's territory." Voya spoke for me, her voice even though her fingers were flicking in sign language at me. She wasn't happy that I hadn't demanded payment for information first, go figure. "They were destroyed after being found, for what good it did. If there are any in the Blood Pack's territory, we haven't heard about them. We didn't know there was a base here, we were hunting pirates that were being paid to raid her cargo ships."

"Can you give me a full report?"

I nodded slightly, ignoring my companion's irritation. "I'll need an address, but we can send it once we get back to Omega. The Eclipse probably has more detailed records than we could get here."

The Spectre nodded, then grimaced like a woman about to put her hand into a fire, and forced out a pair of words. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." It wasn't as hard for me to say it. I knew that she didn't like me, but she was still Commander Shepard. "Introductions? Your companions have yet to speak, and I haven't properly introduced my people either."

Evidently that was going off-script, because Shepard blinked again before gathering herself with a nod. I waved at... _my_ people in turn, running through quick introductions. Voya, not quite glaring at them. Thul, placidly accepting my winning hand and pushing my winnings towards me. Shyeel, lounging behind a small mountain of winnings. Illyan, spending too much of her time looking at Liara for my liking.

Dietrich and Jarick had called it a night after the fourth meal they'd served, heading back to our bay to sleep off their own excellent food, but Callada was still here. The Asari was over at the bar, flirting with the bartender whose head was already ducked to the left in a clear offer that the Asari seemed to recognize. Even as I waved in her direction she was leaning over the counter to nip playfully at the young woman's neck.

"So she probably won't be joining us in our room tonight." I sighed, shaking my head a bit at the sight.

Shepard just snorted and turned away, while Liara flushed and did the same. The Chosen One kept on staring as if transfixed until Shep pointedly cleared her throat. "Nikita."

"Sorry!" Her English was smooth, with only the tiniest traces of an accent to it. Her head whipped back around as she swallowed. "I've just... I've never seen a Batarian girl before, and... um... I'm sorry."

"It's fine." Shepard assured her, giving me a tight look to warn me against challenging that assertion. "Just introduce yourself."

"Right... right." 'Nikita' swallowed. "I'm Nikita Korolev, I am... I was a private investigator on the Citadel. I joined Shepard when Saren killed my partner, Tali hired us to try and protect her."

That was more than I'd expected, and from the Spectre's annoyed look it was more than she'd wanted the other woman to say as well. It didn't surprise me at all when she elected to introduce the Asari instead of letting the maiden do it herself. "And this is Liara T'Soni, archeologist."

"A pleasure to meet you all." Liara bowed her head politely. "I must confess I never thought I would meet so many members of Batarian nobility in one place before."

I couldn't help but snort. "We aren't exactly nobility, Miss T'Soni."

She frowned a little. It was... goddess help me, cute. "I thought that Reyja'krem remained members of the high caste, even in exile?"

"That is... technically correct, young maiden." Thul rumbled, both sets of eyes lighting up as he set his deck aside. It was clear that no further rounds were going to occur at this point regardless. "But the actual status of individuals such as ourselves, is far more complicated."

"Oh," Aethyta's daughter blinked a few times. "By the goddess, I didn't mean to cause offense."

"None was taken." The big man assured her, dipping his head most politely. "If anything, the notion that we are nobility in your eyes is somewhat flattering."

Liara flushed a little, which drew an approving look from Illyan. "Aren't you just adorable? Sure you're a T'Soni though? You look more like a-"

I was in the middle of taking a drink, anything I did to shut her up in that moment would have been stupidly suspicious.

Voya rode in to the rescue, her voice smoothly cutting off the Asari. "Keelah, stop trying to flirt with her already. She can't be much older than your sister."

"I'm not, she can't... how old are you?"

"Um... I'm a hundred and six?"

Illyan visibly slumped and sighed. "Why are the cute ones always too young?"

"You could always go after the Krogan." Voya wasn't about to let her off easy. "He's probably more your age."

Shepard's lips twitched into something that might have been a smile, and the Chosen One, Miss Korolev, actually giggled when the pair devolved into their usual back and forth of increasingly vicious insults. Banter slowly flowed out, little jokes and mild amusements growing as everyone managed to relax, at least a little. The Spectre even had a drink.

All in all, it seemed like a decent enough start to working together once again, up until Voya almost killed someone.

* * *

**Silent Witness**

I closed and locked the bathroom door behind me, and then leaned casually against the wall while I waited for the human woman to finish what she was doing. I was just glad that she'd had to use this room at all, I'd been starting to wonder if I wouldn't have to wait until we'd all gone back to the cargo bay and come up with a new plan there.

Of course, if anyone noticed that I'd followed the bitch instead of going to the kitchen I still might have problems. The Spectre would notice her subordinate was taking too long if I dragged this out, and Cieran would only be able to explain away my absence for a similarly short period of time.

I would have to be fast.

The millisecond the stall opened, and I saw the distinctive black armor, I moved. She didn't have time to do more than let out a startled bleating sound before I had a hand over her mouth, while my other had already drawn a knife to leave the point at her throat.

I was careful not to prick her skin though. Cie had said no physical pain.

"Scream or shout, you can guess what will happen." I kept my voice low and hard, which wasn't hard to do. "We're going to have a short conversation, which you will not repeat to anyone. Understand?"

The human girl couldn't exactly nod, but she twitched her chin. Her tiny eyes were almost bulging, white all around the tiny brown circles in their center. It was a calculated risk, but I had to let her speak. My knife lowered slightly, and Korolev swallowed heavily. "Wh-what do you-"

"The Matriarch." I interrupted her. I didn't have time to listen to this weak thing stammer. "What are her plans for you?"

There was a lot of confused blinking. "Who?"

My lips curled. "The bitch that rewrote your mind and convinced you that you're from another dimension, where all of this is a game."

 _That_ got a reaction. Her mouth dropped open, then snapped shut, then dropped again. Dirt colored skin tried to pale as her blood left it, and if she could have flung herself away from me I thought she would have. "Y-you... how did..."

I sneered at her. "You think you're her first experiment? You're just the finished product."

Korolev was stammering, staring, shaking her head. I'd apparently just thrown her brain into chaos because she wasn't responding to the question I'd asked. But then... she sucked in a long, tight breath, bowed her head, and her breathing slowed back down to something like normal for her kind.

She was... rallying herself. I felt myself lick my lips in surprise. "I... how did you... know..?"

"That," The knife in my right hand rose to move along her jawline without quite touching her skin. "Is not any of your concern. The Matriarch. Your orders. Speak."

She flinched away, almost tripping over the toilet behind her before swallowing, centering herself, and not-quite glaring at me. "I'm... I'm not telling you anything."

I blinked. _That_ wasn't something I expected.

"You're one of the _them_ , aren't you? The _enemy._ " The young humans' voice hardened, losing its stammering quality as something like steel replaced it. "They... they told me you would try and kill me. To... to ruin the Citadel like you're doing in the Terminus."

Oh Ancestral Guardians guide me to the sheltered valleys. That bitch had seriously thought ahead, and found a neat little excuse that probably covered a million and a half eventualities. Especially if she used some kind of mental enhancement to reinforce the concept in the idiot's head, we had no idea just what the Matriarch was capable of in that area. Dammit. Cie worried enough about what she might have done to his head, much less what she might have done to someone else's.

I spat an annoyed curse at the girl, slammed my knife back into its sheathe, then spun on a heel and stormed out of the stall without another word. I heard her stammer something confused in my wake, which I ignored as I forced myself to slow down and slip casually out of the bathroom.

No one pointed and demanded to know why I was in there, or even seemed to glance at me, so I took it as a success.

Dammit. I might have had _some_ information now but it wasn't anything like I'd wanted. Threatening the stupid tit wouldn't have done anything if she thought I was some mysterious enemy fucking with her quest. Bringing Cieran's name up would have only drawn her attention. Or... wait. I _had_ held my knife to her throat and told her... Keelah. I'd _already_ confirmed that I, and probably the rest of the Blades, were the 'enemy'. If, or more likely when, that little bitch told T'Ravt about us, our lives were going to get even more complicated than they already were.

Complicated. Cieran hated that word. I was starting to agree with his loathing of it.

Growling, I stomped over to the bar firmly intending on ordering a full bottle for myself. Reaching it, I glowered through my mask when I realized that the bartender was currently making out with our new Asari, the young woman's four eyes all very much closed as Weshan held onto her.

Fucking typical.

Reaching up and over the counter, I grabbed a bottle, glowered at an Asari drink that would kill me, and tried for another. This time I retrieved a Turian vintage that was safe enough. Not wanting to waste time finding a straw, I used my other hand to yank my mask off and toss it onto the bar, then tipped the thing back as I collapsed onto a stool.

I needed to go through about a fifth of it before I was calm enough to reach up and pull the rest of my suit's headpiece back, releasing my mane with a groan of pleasure. Shaking it out a bit, I took another sip and then turned to regard the rest of the room. Everyone else was more or less as they'd been when I'd slipped away.

Half of the Spectre's team was still at the other end of the bar, along with a few soldiers. They weren't mingling, but weren't fighting either. Everyone else was still at the tables, surrounding Cie and Shepard, light banter and casual talk intermixing with more poignent conversations about the Geth and what we could expect tomorrow.

The Chosen One was walking away from Shepard even as I looked, heading for the door. Since the Spectre wasn't drawing her weapon to gun me down, I assumed that Korolev was keeping quiet for now... it made sense. Cieran had needed to have his lover _die_ before he could even tell me about the things in his head. I didn't doubt that she would be just as hesitant to tell anyone without serious trauma or extreme motivation. She was probably heading to our rooms where she could compose a frantic message about what had happened, or the little thing just wanted to get away from me.

I brought my hands up as soon as Cie glanced in my direction, and tersely signed the words enemy and annoying at him.

He seemed to get that it hadn't gone well, shaking his head in tiny movements before sighing, turning back to Shepard to respond to something she'd asked him.

Sighing, I was about to turn around when I realized that someone was walking in my direction from the other end of the bar. And they weren't happy.

Fists were clenched furiously tight, eyes were narrowed to slits, and every bit of of her body language was screaming with anger. It had to be, it was the only way anyone could tell what the inbred was feeling with the suit in the way.

Keelah, this is so _not_ what I needed.

"What do you want, princess?" I snapped as soon as she was close, evaluating my options as I did. She was tall, like, Cieran tall, which was very atypical for either race of our species. A shotgun on the small of her back would be her main weapon, along with the grenades I could see on her belt. I'd have to be fast if she decided to express her anger physically.

"Stop. Taunting. Me." Her accent was thick, it always was with her kind. The slow, boiling enunciation was new though.

"If I wanted to taunt you I'd be more obvious about it." I muttered, taking another pull of the liquor. "Piss off, inbred. I'm not in the mood."

"Signing that I'm your annoying enemy wasn't _obvious_?"

...oh. She'd thought I'd directed that at her, which... meant things were complicated. I couldn't exactly tell her I _hadn't_ been, she'd obviously understood it and would demand to know who I had been talking about... or make her wonder who else in this room could understand signed Khellish. And going with her assumption would...

I sighed. Cieran was not going to be happy about this. Well, at least I'd get to beat up an inbred princess today. Little victories.

"Of course I'm your enemy." I kept my voice low. "Your ancestors abandoned mine to slavery and confinement, to be _bred_ like beasts of burden. I simply meant that I was so astounded that your deformed brain could grasp the concept of sign language that I didn't think it obvious."

When she didn't swing at me, I took a very, very showy sip from my drink and rolled the liquid around in my mouth. I swallowed with every sign of pleasure, then let a hand move up to run through my long mane. "This," I lowered my voice to something like a purr. "Is _obvious._ Have you ever felt the wind in your mane? Smelled your food as it cooked? Touched a friend just to feel-"

She snapped, and a fist rocketed towards my face. I saw it coming, and could have ducked, but I wanted it to be clear that I'd been the one attacked.

So I snarled as the punch struck my cheek, snapping my head back. My right lashed out in a kick at her thigh, drawing a grunt from my larger opponent. The motion also shoved me backwards and over, my body flying from my stool just before it clattered to the floor.

My back hit the ground and drew another grunt of pain, barely audible over the sudden shouts from everyone else in the room. Rolling onto my side, I tucked my legs beneath me to avoid a stomp that made my eyes widen. I had to scramble right and throw myself into another roll to dodge a second vicious kick that would have hit a pressure point behind my right knee.

Someone had taught this inbred to fight dirty. She was still thinking behind her rage... and she was taller, brawnier, and stronger than me.

Bouncing up to my feet, I dodged a quick punch and snapped both hands up to deflect another. I danced inside her long arms to snap a punch at her throat while she was still trying to yank her lead arm back, drawing a chocking noise as she recoiled from me. It hadn't been a hard hit, more startling than anything else. I couldn't let her recover.

Staying close, I snapped a pair of quick punches into her mid-section that probably hurt my hand more than her. Stupid full enviro-suit with armor plating. If I drew my knives I could have made quick work of her simply by tearing her suit open, but Cieran would probably kill me if I did. Assuming the Spectre didn't beat him to it, so I was stuck trying to keep her at bay the difficult way.

I tried to throw a punch at a weak point near the elbow, trying to stun that limb so I could stick to that side, only for her to dodge, then for hands to seize my limb in a tight grip that held me motionless for a moment. There wasn't even time to flinch before she head-butted me with her mask, and I staggered back woozily.

Her eyes curled in a victorious sneer beneath her mask, and she wound up for a blow that would probably knock me out.

A metal rod lashed out against her head before she could throw it, making her yelp in startled shock and instinctively jump away. I wasn't spared either, the weapon reversing course to smack into my gut and send me stumbling another step or two away from the inbred.

"Enough!" Cie shouted furiously, lowering his cane and all but staggering as he did. "Athame's fucking ass, enough!"

Shepard had arrived as well, and looked just as angry as my friend. "Kean."

He nodded, tightly, and drew himself into his Highborn Batarian asshole pose. Both hands wrapped around his cane as he stood rigidly upright, glaring at me before twisting his torso a bit to glare at my opponent. "I'm positive that my subordinate taunted yours, but yours still threw the first punch. As far as I'm concerned, they both deserve punishment. Agreed?"

Lips pulled back from the Spectre's teeth, making it clear that she did not even though she spat a single word. "Agreed. I'll handle Tali's."

She wouldn't do more than slap her on the wrist, assuming she did anything at all. I almost rolled my eyes, then... woah.

Cieran's arm snapped out, a hand grabbing my shoulder before I could fall over. "And I will take care of Voya."

Shepard glared at him, then at me. She might have nodded, or just twitched her chin, then she was moving towards the door. All of her team trailed after her, those few who'd been drinking setting their drinks down and leaving credit chits in their wake.

"Sorry." I murmured quietly, and I actually meant it for once. "I didn't have a choice. Things are... complicated."

He seemed to sag against me, the pair of us leaning on each other like a pair of drunks. "Complicated... of course it is. All right, let's get to bed, you can tell me on the way."

* * *

_**Next up is Operation: The Burdens III** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Awesome reviews, both in quality and quantity, gets me inspired to write stupidly huge chapters at a fast rate. :)
> 
> Cieran finally breaks down for a bit, and despite the help of his friends isn't quite all there in the aftermath. Still, he was coherent enough to work out a basic plan and reform the squads, and to recognize that everyone could use some down time. Of course, Voya's attempts to threaten the Chosen One didn't exactly go well, and she and Tali got along about as well as you'd expect.
> 
> The next chapter will cover the remainder of their time on Antibaar, and will largely be another 'personal' chapter.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	24. Operation: The Burden III

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

**Operation: The Burden III**

_Date: 02-26-2813_

_Location: Antibaar, Armstrong Nebula, outer Skyllian Verge_

* * *

Given how utterly exhausted I was, the insomnia came as no great surprise.

The anger that had propelled me to get between Tali and Voya had somewhat faded when the latter had tersely explained the situation, leaving me tired and drained. I was still pissed at her, just not quite at the point where I had been when I'd seen Tali, deservedly, deck her.

After the explanation, and after I'd rapped her on her bruised skull and then ignored her for the rest of the walk. We caught up with everyone else back at the barracks style room we'd claimed as our own. It was... well, pretty basic. A few dozen beds in neat rows against the wall, with entrances and bathrooms at either end. We'd kept all of our things at one end, a bit of lucky coincidence that meant we didn't have to move anything. Shepard and her team stayed entirely on the opposite side from us, to my complete lack of surprise.

"Thul, take the first watch please." I murmured to him, flicking my eyes pointedly at Ashley Williams as I did. The marine had settled into a chair in between her comrade's beds and ours, her rifle extended and resting beside her, a worn leather book in her hands. Everyone else was already bustling about their military-standard beds, throwing glares at my people as they did the same at the other end of the long room. "When they rotate, so do we. Use your best judgment on who to assign."

"You aren't staying?" He rumbled as quietly as his deep voice would allow, keeping one set of eyes on Ash while the upper set stayed on me.

"I'll be next door, will probably sleep on a cot in there." Where my various problems would be hidden from our guests. "Omni-tool will be on high volume, blast an alarm if there's an issue you can't handle."

"I could have Miss T'Donna take the first shift, if you wish to talk." My friend offered, dipping his tanned head a few hairs to the left.

I considered that for a few breaths, then shook my head a little. "Right now I just want to work on something. When we ship out... when we ship out you can corner me and ask your inane, unrelated questions until you're satisfied."

"Unrelated, perhaps, but hardly inane." He chuckled a little, clapped my shoulder gently. "I will hold you to that my friend. I will speak with you in the morning."

We dipped our heads politely, giving and offering respect between our positions, and then I turned around and limped back out of the room. A very short walk down a cavernous hallway later found me back in our storage room, staring at a bloodstains soaked into the glacial floor, directly beside the still overturned holo-table.

Hesh.

My eyes slid right, another, larger marking not more than a meter away.

Ullak.

I bowed my head and murmured a quiet Batarian prayer for the departed. They'd been solid men, dependable, and utterly loyal to their Tarath'shan. And to each other, I supposed. I knew they'd been a couple, Ayle had confirmed as much on more than one occasion, but I'd never seen them display anything publicly. That had probably been Ullak, he'd been as private as Hesh had been outgoing.

Stepping around where they'd fallen, I spared the blood that Ayle had left behind a single glance, then forced myself to look away and limp onwards.

My power armor loomed in its rack once again, the dark navy and silver paint chipped and battered. The charging lancer had gunmetal showing where large flecks had come loose, as did the Silver Blade on the other side of its chest. Typically the shield was the worst, I'd stopped bothering painting the things after the third replacement. There just wasn't a point in making them look good when I went through them so often.

Painting would only occupy my hands, not my brain, so that was out. I could work on my weapons, but I'd spent most of yesterday tuning up both of them. Glancing right, and then left, I grunted when I saw Ayle's old shotgun resting on top of a workbench.

She wouldn't need it anytime soon, but it was... I cocked my head a little, glanced down at my cane, then at her gun.

Huh. There was an idea. I could probably strip down a light pistol, like a predator, work in something like a shredder module... hm. That would definitely keep my brain occupied and off of... well, everything.

Limping over to my workbench, I dug through tools and scraps of equipment before I found an oversized tablet. Turning in place, I leaned back as I turned it on and opened up the old blueprints for my cane. Considering it, I nodded to myself and settled in to start designing a new one.

A good hour of peaceful work followed, silence broken only when I muttered to myself or paced as best I could as I worked through what I would need.

The quiet made the quiet hiss of the door opening all the more noticeable, and I jerked my head up to see Voya entering the room. She still had her mask off, and was currently pressing an icepack to her head as she shuffled through the doorway. I watched stoically as she hit the controls, locking it behind her, saying nothing as she walked until there was only a meter or so between us.

"You had to take your mask off." I murmured, anger smoldering back to life in my chest at the way she didn't want to meet my gaze. "You couldn't just come back to the table where you still had a drink with a fucking straw."

Her wide eyes winced a little at the edges. "I was-"

"You didn't think." I finished for her. "You were pissy and angry and you didn't _think_ about the fact that there was a pilgrim in the room. "

Voya's tiny nose flared a little. "You want another apology?"

I managed to keep glaring at her for a few more long breaths, then sighed as the heat left my chest, leaving me tired and cold. "No. Picking a fight with her at least covered up that you were signing at someone at the table."

"So I'm not getting punish-" She took a step back when my glare returned full force. "...how badly?"

"You get to tune up Illyan's new armor and guns and maintain them for her for the next month. Oh, and your pay is going entirely to the unit for the same time frame." I paused a moment before admitting. "The latter is more to satisfy Shepard, the former is actually your punishment."

The little Quarian glanced at Illyan's mess of a work bench. "Can I at least use my own tools?"

"Nope."

A dark, forked tongue appeared as she licked her lips before slumping unhappily. "Fine. Report?"

Grunting, I nodded in permission before turning to limp towards my armor. The only chair in the place was Ayle's tipped over seat, and I wasn't about to sit there. Instead my cane thudded a few times as I meandered over to the looming exoskeleton, groaning in relief as I dropped to sit on the cold floor beside it, my back resting against one of the broad legs.

Voya followed me, sans the limp, and sat with far more dignity against the other leg. She also groaned, but only when she turned her head to let her skin touch the cold metal. "Inbred bitch, her skull must be made of concrete."

"You underestimated her, go ahead and admit it."

She sniffed disdainfully even as her glowing eyes closed. "I did no such thing. I simply lacked all of the data I needed."

"That's the same thing Voya."

"To an unintelligent human male, perhaps." A short woof of breath escaped her when I smacked her gut in reply. It was entirely drama, her armored suit hurt my hand more than I probably put any pressure on her. "Asshole."

"Yeah yeah. Chosen One?"

Her lips twisted in displeasure. "She's an idiot with more courage than sense."

It took her barely a minute to cover the short conversation the pair had had in the bathroom, covering Korolev's initial fear and then her sudden rush of defiance. What little she'd said in reply to Voya, and what I'd managed to overhear when Thul had struck up a casual conversation with the girl. She'd been highly intimidated by the massive Batarian man, but had eventually relaxed and replied. It hadn't been easy to divide my attention between Shepard and what I was overhearing, but I'd caught the salient points.

Korolev had shown up on the Citadel about a year ago, along with an Asari friend to start up a private investigation business. They'd worked closely with C-Sec, with Captain Bailey of all people being her primary contact. She was apparently fond of him, because she'd spent a while talking about how they'd worked together to bring down some smuggling ring.

Shepard had smoothly cut into the conversation before she could reveal anything about how she'd joined the SR-1's crew, or what she did for the Spectre, but I'd heard enough to throw some guesswork together.

"A private investigator would be solid as cover." I mused around my pipe, lighting the thing as I elaborated on my theories to Voya. "She can explain away future knowledge as information she's tracked down. It'll also make her valuable if she's any good at picking out details or reading people."

My friend waved some of my smoke out of her face and frowned. "Don't they have the Turian? He was C-Sec?"

"Yeah." The pipe moved as I spoke, and I pulled it out of my mouth to be a bit clearer. "Did some checking on him. He's originally from their Rapid Response Unit. Basically an anti-terrorism task force, he's a soldier in everything but name. He transferred to the investigations branch all of a week before shit went down on the Citadel."

Which also explained why the Council, or more likely, someone high up in C-Sec with a good opinion of Saren, had assigned Garrus to the investigation. The poor man was essentially a rookie in that role and completely unprepared and untrained to handle the task of investigating someone as untouchable as a Spectre. Shit, he'd probably been pulled out of training, been given the task, and then been ignored entirely. That he'd found anything at all had probably been a minor miracle.

And that was just what I'd gotten from news articles that Sederis had forwarded to me. Who knew what the guy had gone through in office politics behind closed doors. Athame's ass... it was no wonder he had no respect for authority figures if that was the kind of crap he had to deal with.

Voya grunted quietly, always a weird sound coming from her lithe frame. "She and her partner find the princess when she shows up, con her into hiring them. If they time it when Saren's people try to kill her, it wouldn't have taken much convincing."

"Assuming they were Saren's people at all." I reminded her, taking a short pull from my pipe before elaborating on the paranoid thought. "Killing her partner and blaming Saren sounds a lot like something the Matriarch would do, doesn't it? And I have to wonder just how Tali and the rest of them knew they were Saren's agents. Rumor says he's not the kind of man who would tolerate that level of stupidity."

Lips curled to show ivory teeth. "Yes. It would isolate the girl, remove her only support. And if her handler had gotten too close, too tempted to side with her in a debate instead of the old bitch... problem solved in advance. Are you sure I can't just kill her?"

"Don't tempt me." I muttered. "If Krom doesn't talk she's the only person who might be able to lead us to T'Ravt, when that time comes. Besides, whatever she and that bitch are up to, I don't think it's happening anytime soon."

She blinked at me. "Why not?"

"What's the point in knowing what's going to happen if she wants to change everything right from the start?" My right shoulder rose and fell. "Personally I think they'll want to use that information for all it's worth and try and jump in right at the end to," I made air quotes, "'adjust' things. And didn't she say that she's there to stop the 'enemy' who's changing things in the Terminus?"

"Something like that." One of her hands rose to play with her stiff hair, stroking it slowly as she thought. "She's likely supposed to keep things as they were, prevent interference from villains just as us. I don't see how she expects to succeed. If I _was_ her supposed enemy I would have killed her for being stupid enough to identify me to my face."

"Yeah." I took several slow puffs on my pipe and mulled that over. "Storming out should have confused her, at least. That's something."

"Assuming she's intelligent enough to realize her mistake."

"She can't be all that stupid, otherwise Shepard would have never brought her along." My head shook, making some strands of my hair fall over my eyes. I batted them away irritably before continuing. "Dammit. There's something about her that we have to be missing. Her job says she should be observant and good at turning evidence into information, unless she let her partner do all of the thinking."

"Possible." Voya pointed out.

"Possible." I agreed, "But unlikely. She's been with Shepard for two months now, that's a long time to fake a career. Either Shep or Garrus would have noticed by now."

The Quarian hummed thoughtfully for a moment. "As much as I hate to say this, I think we're going to have to speak with Sederis about her."

I grimaced, but nodded after a moment. "I'll send a message to her."

"In the morning." A three fingered hand grabbed my forearm. "You need to sleep."

Too tired to turn my torso, I felt myself slump a little as I turned my head. Two glowing eyes were narrowed in a tight glare, making it clear that she wasn't about to let me say no. "There's a cot-"

"-A bed next door." Her voice lowered to a growl. "Up."

I made a show of crossing my legs and exhaling smoke. "And if I don't? You're not in any shape to carry me."

Her lips twitched a little. "I'd wake up Illyan and say you wanted to have sex with her."

Something in my cheek twitched. "Bitch."

She gave me a little grin, pushing herself to her feet and pointedly waiting for me to do the same. Sighing, I extinguished my pipe before using my cane to lever myself up. Voya waited patiently, pointedly not helping me, but kept pace easily as I limped towards the door. Unlocking the door, the pair of us entered the hall and turned to head back to the barracks next door.

We were about halfway to the door when the far one, the other exit to our room, slid open to reveal Commander Shepard. She was rubbing at her forehead, still wearing her armor sans helmet, but had a backpack wrapped around one shoulder. The tall woman froze to see the pair of us in the hallway with her, but seemed more surprised to see my companion than me.

I regarded her, exhaled, then nudged Voya with my elbow. She pursed her lips but nodded, accelerating away from me before vanishing through the door, leaving me alone with the Spectre.

Shepard had watched the Quarian warily, not moving in my direction until she'd gone.

"Can't sleep?" I settled both hands on my cane and watched as she approached. Her pale skin was a bit more wan than it had been earlier, and there was a bit of a slump to her normally balanced posture.

"Your priest and Sergeant Williams are arguing theology." She grunted, slowing to a stop about a meter away. "Loudly."

"Athame's ass..." A hand rose to rub at my face tiredly. "Please don't tell me I have to break up another fight."

"They're being civil, just... loud." Her arms crossed. "And in either case, I was hoping to speak privately with you tomorrow. Now works just as well."

Resisting the tired urge to point out that she was telling rather than asking, I just kept leaning on my cane and nodded as politely as I could. "All right, what do you want?"

Her eyes, the irises so darkly blue as to look purple, narrowed at me in distaste. Apparently I didn't quite keep the annoyance out of my voice, but she kept her tone even. "Walk with me?"

I nodded, and the pair of us turned and stared back down the hallway of ice and stone. She kept her pace slow so as not to outpace my limping steps. We stayed silent for several minutes, until we'd reached the space that would have been occupied by the base's third regiment had there been one present.

"All right Shepard." My leg was throbbing, I was tired, and I knew the woman beside me didn't care for me in the slightest. "What do you want?"

"I want a lot of things, Kean." She exhaled a plume of steam, the cold air condensing her breath almost at once. "But from you? I want information."

"More?" Turning into a dark room, I smacked the lights to life and grunted when I saw an empty mess. Heading for the nearest table, I glanced at her out of the corner of my eyes as I moved. "What did you think of since you asked that same question a few hours ago?"

Shepard didn't say anything until the pair of us had sat, her hands folded as I regarded her politely in the Batarian fashion. "Several things. First... something personal. Your subordinate, the Asari giantess. She was flirting with Liara, and almost said she looked like someone. I want to know who, and why the Quarian interrupted her."

I went still. Normally when a human does that, they still waver a bit, their breath shifting them back and forth. Their head shifts a little, they blink. But I wasn't a normal human, for better or worse, and I'd had plenty of practice in Batarian mannerisms. When a Batarian locks up, they don't move. Period.

I didn't either, and she visibly started at my suddenly total lack of movement, then her eyes sharpened at my tell. Dammit, I was too tired for this level of conversation. Too tired, too out of it, too everything. "You know."

"Yes." My voice was quieter than I intended, my hands dropping to my lap. "Why do you want to know?"

There was a long pause. "We are, in all probability, going to be forced to kill her mother if she won't surrender peaceably. She doesn't know who her father is."

Swallowing, I very slowly relaxed, forcing myself to breath and think logically. Aethyta was already out, already loose, already had the information she needed to screw with everything. Telling Shepard, and Liara by proxy, about her would fuck with things even more but how severely would it be? And if things _did_ change, how much did I seriously care? Would it harm the galaxy's chances against the reapers? Would it make my hunt for Krom more difficult?

Athame's ass... I was not awake enough to think this through properly.

Sucking in a breath, I collected my posture properly once again, and met her eyes as I nodded minutely. "Information isn't free, and this is dangerous knowledge to me personally. What are you offering as payment?"

"The full report C-Sec and Spectre Jaguraundi compiled on the assassin zero-nine; Anad Krom. All of his known kills, known patterns, aliases, and partners since he started operating four years ago." She supplied at once, her lips curling when I felt my eyes widen in shock. "After we met on Carastes, I made sure to read the AIS file on you, Kean. Interested?"

I just stared at her, then couldn't help but snort and give her a tight smile. "You already know the answer to that question, Spectre."

"Deal?"

Aethyta wanted me dead anyway. Fuck her. "Deal. The report?"

Moving carefully, she twisted her pack around, rummaged around in it, and pulled out a tablet. A few flicks brought it to life, letting me see the official looking wording and title on top. It came to rest in front of her, one hand pointedly remaining on top of it.

Controlling the urge to simply grab the thing, I nodded once and forced my gaze back up. "Liara T'Soni is the love child of Matriarch Benezia T'Soni and Matriarch Aethyta T'Voth."

Shepard blinked furiously. "The old head of Republic Intelligence? The AIS said you worked for her, yes?"

"Yes." I nodded before trying to move on. "She is a military veteran, and has trained at least one of the Asari Spectres and is close to Matriarch Lidanya. Before her fall from grace, about a century ago, she was the face of the Republic's Militarist party. Strong advocates of increasing the Asari's fleet strength to surpass the Turians in numbers as well as in technology. She has three other daughters, which makes them T'Soni's half-sisters. I've never met them, and am only aware of one's location. She is... currently an involuntary guest of Jona Sederis."

Armor creaked as her hands curled. "A hostage?"

"The old fish attempted to assassinate Sederis on Omega a few months ago. She didn't want to kill her, but needed a means to stop her from trying it again." I explained. "As for Aethyta's current location, I can't say. The last time we spoke she tried to kill me."

Her throat worked as she swallowed her initial response, which was probably a statement about agreeing with the sentiment. "Why?"

"I withheld information from her, she took it personally." I replied, my voice tight. "Which is hypocrisy of a staggering magnitude because she didn't tell me much of anything when I was her agent, and her secrets got people killed."

The vehemence in my words took her by surprise, I saw her pull back a little, blinking rapidly, then she controlled herself. "You know a lot about her."

"I was her agent for two years. It wasn't difficult to discern a few things, to research a bit more." It was a fight to relax, to let the wave of anger to wash back out to sea. "Anything else you want to know?"

Shepard shook her head slightly and pushed the tablet the rest of the way to me. I took it, and had to force myself to set it aside and not instantly start tearing into the information. "No. I can locate the rest through my channels, now that I have her name."

I nodded slowly, still forcing my breath to stabilize. "You do realize that you just gave me your best bargaining chip for a relatively minor question, yes?"

"Minor to you, maybe. To Liara..." Her voice trailed off, and I abruptly realized just why she might consider this to be such a big deal to the young maiden.

"Oh. _Personal_." I managed to drawl the word a bit.

Purple eyes flashed. "It's not like that." I gave her a look to tell her just how little I believed that, and her mouth twitched in a tiny tic. "I had additional questions."

"So you implied." I wasn't doing myself any favors in terms of her opinion of me, if her expression was anything to go by, but I was too tired to seriously care. "They are?"

It was her turn to take a few long breaths, visibly calming herself. I wanted to snort, I wasn't even _trying_ to annoy her. "You already guessed that AIS isn't at it's best in the Terminus right now."

I blinked, then nodded slightly. "The same think happened to RI during the Blue Sun conflict. Lost more than a few agents to collateral damage, usual communications channels were swallowed by the waves, that kind of thing. When this war started up they sent out a recall order to what agents they'd gotten back into place, they didn't want to lose more."

"You obviously didn't."

"I sent my resignation on the same channel." I replied. "Where are you going with this?"

"My... mentor, Nihlus Kryik, was a good Spectre. He taught me the ins and outs of the job, what few rules we have, the things that the more successful agents do." Pale skin moved as she swallowed, clearly not happy but also determined. "One of those is keeping an open mind about our own government's biases, especially when it comes to intelligence on our missions. He emphasized cultivating relationships to make sure we know the entire story before we go into a situation, and he had a few dozen people he was on speaking terms with, in the Terminus, the Traverse. Nearly as many in the Republics."

I could see where she was going with this, and exhaled slowly as I regarded her. "I see. A few problems. One, you hate me. Two, I have to deal with too many people wanting things from me as it is."

"Disliking someone doesn't preclude working with them, not in your business nor the one I'm stuck in." Interesting choice of words there... and interesting vehemence. She was already working with someone she didn't like, but the question was who? "And you would be compensated. Nihlus paid his people in credits, but I'm open to providing you with information. Depending on the subject."

"Three." I spoke as if she hadn't, "I'm not motivated to help you."

And I found myself surprised to realize that that was entirely true. I didn't have any burning need, or desire, to help her. She was _Shepard_. She was more than capable of resolving the whole mess with Saren without any assistance from me, and this was as close as her mission would ever take her to being in the Terminus.

She glowered at me. "What _would_ motivate you then?"

My eyes rolled and tilted my left a bit to the right. "Nothing that I can..." Something echoed through the doorway, and my voice trailed into a curse. "Athame's ass."

She'd already turned towards the noise, pulling her rifle off of her back as she rose. "Geth?"

"Doubt it." I half closed my eyes and focused on my hearing. Footfalls, quiet and sure, trying not to make noise... but doing so sloppily, catching and shuffling. Staggering. Muttered words that slurred themselves. "More annoying. Drunks."

My cane struck the floor as I strode towards the door, ire and adrenaline waking and riling me up as I did. "Stay back, and don't shoot unless they do."

"Don't give me orders, Kean." Despite her words she did linger a bit behind me and to my right, where she could cover me while also keeping my body between her and the door. She kept her gun out but pointed slightly down, ready to snap it up if required.

Exhaling, I twitched the fingers of my right hand around the grip of my cane, adjusting settings and hoping that I was doing so correctly. It had been a while since I'd used it for something like this, and it wouldn't do to set myself or Shepard on fire.

A Turian staggered into the doorway a few breaths before I reached it, his breath absolutely filled with the distinctive mint exhalations of his people's brandy. Despite his inebriation, he remained in the white and yellow armor, and his bare mandibles were quivering with drunken anger. "Mercenary." The word was more of a slur. "And the bitch."

"Captain Betherus." Of course this asshole couldn't have left well enough alone. "I see you weren't so drunk as to not pay someone to watch the camera feeds."

"You know... you know how many friends this bitch killed?" He chirped furiously, not moving from the doorway. It didn't let me see how many friends he'd brought, but from the muttering growling and chirping I had to guess there were at least a dozen.

Shit. Against those numbers a simple beat-down wouldn't work. I'm good at hand-to-hand, or cane-to-claw in this case, and I didn't doubt that Shepard could hand herself. But six-to-one odds is something that you only win in the movies. In real life the drunk Turians swarm you and tear you into bloody meat before you can do more than take one or two of them down.

If they didn't back down... we were going to have to kill at least most of them with my cane and her gun before they got to us. That was paperwork I didn't want to deal with, and would be a morale hit to a still recovering unit as it was.

"Captain." I snapped, my voice as cold as the air around us. "Turn your skinny ass around and go pass the fuck out. Colonel Kaste will not be amused if you violate his _word_."

"You.. think you scare me? Scare us?" He laughed, a cawing sound beneath the translator. "We... have geth guns. Too bad hunters got past us."

And of course he was too drunk to realize that that explanation wouldn't hold up for more than ten seconds. Athame's fucking ass... this just had to happen tonight. Why the fuck did shit _always_ have to go wrong when all I wanted to do was collapse somewhere?

The Captain took a single step towards me, looming as threateningly as his wavering frame allowed. "Move, human. We spare you if you walk away now, keep your mouth shut."

I found myself relaxing, taking in a slow breath and half closing my eyes, shifting my balance onto my good leg.

He didn't realize his peril until I was already moving, my cane shooting up in a vicious thrust that ended at his throat. His cry became a gurgle, both of his hands shooting up reflexively to protect it. Pulling my weapon back, I shifted my aim and lunged again, this time striking him in the right mandible and breaking the tendons that held it in place with an audible popping sound.

If he'd had the breath to scream he would have. Instead he dropped down, trying to clutch at both of the places I'd hit. I didn't give him the chance to get back up, instead slamming the back of my left foot down onto his fringe as hard as my aching body would allow.

The evidence of Turian masculinity snapped backwards with a hideous crack, and the Captain's body began to thrash as his compatriots tried to move in through the doorway only to freeze at the sight of their ringleader pinned to the ground as I shoved my foot against the back of his skull and held it there.

"Move and I burn you alive." I all but snarled, my cane back up and pointed firmly at them.

For a second, I thought that they weren't going to, that they would aim the Geth shotguns held in their hands in our direction and shit would get very, very messy.

Then they glanced down at their leader, at me and Shepard, and then weapons clattered to the floor.

Their compatriots heard that, probably saw the two of them holding their hands up, and decided that discretion was the better part of valor. Feet pounded and echoed as they fled back to the inhabited portion of the base, probably hoping to get back to their bunks before they could be properly identified.

A quick call to Thul and Williams followed, along with a message to Colonel Kaste. Our people arrived first, tired and mismatched but armed and annoyed. Thul and Kaiden took over for the most part, after that. While our XO's tied up our prisoners and got everyone into useful guard positions, Shepard and I had withdrawn back to the table we'd been speaking at. I think she sat because she was legitimately tired, and simply wanted to sit down.

I sat because I honestly didn't know if I could stay upright, and the table let me hide the fact that my left hand was twitching again. I let the fingers slowly tick against my cane, as if I was tapping them like that on purpose.

The Colonel showed up about ten minutes later, along with a full squad of the First Company, the regiment's heavy infantry elites. They were all in full armor, but their postures radiated angry and affront as they escorted their leader into the room and loomed over the prisoners.

For his part, Kaste was old for a Turian. The red paint on his silver plates couldn't disguise their flat appearance and lack of sheen, and no amount of military bearing could hide the slight stiffness to his motions. But tonight he wasn't stiff, or slow. Tonight he was _beyond_ furious and was moving with the energy of a much younger being.

"You... you..." Kaste snarled without any preamble, pushing past Illyan and Korolev to storm right towards the bound and bleeding Captain. "You _dared!_ "

Betherus hadn't sobered up much. "That bitch-"

Turians have more leg strength than humans do. When the old man's foot slammed into the drunk's face there was a hideous cracking sound of breaking plates, and more pained wailing.

"I thought you were ready for the responsibility of your rank." Kaste's voice was suddenly no longer shouting, instead it was low and deadly quiet. I felt myself tensing on reflex, both hands shifting to my cane at the deadly promise he was biting out into each word. "You have shamed me, grandson, and by your actions would have shamed the Warlord as well. Her word, once given, is kept, all the more so when given by proxy by her subordinates as I did today. Your mother would have known that. Sergeant... this creature is no longer a member of our regiment. See that his name is struck from the records, and then evict him."

Evict him. I exhaled slowly and looked away from the doomed young man, not watching as two soldiers seized him, dragging him out of the room as he tried to collect himself, tried to beg before he was thrown into the storm outside.

"And what of these two?" The Colonel had turned to the others, resolutely not looking at his decedent being dragged away. The two men who'd carried the Geth weapons were smart, and were keeping their heads bowed and mandibles still. They knew anything they said wouldn't appease him.

"They surrendered at once." Shepard surprised me by speaking, sighing as she pushed herself to her feet. "I believe it's likely that they were following the other's orders."

The Turian's mandibles quivered once. "I had thought your species did not accept that as a valid reason."

"For humans, it's not." She agreed quietly. "But they aren't human, and they had the sense to not go through with it when the time came."

Kaste regarded her for a long moment, then glanced down at the two privates. "Your immediate superiors will deal with you. Reveal the names of those who fled and I will instruct them to be more lenient."

Both men bowed their heads further, their conjoined sir-yes-sirs almost too quiet for me to hear.

Their Colonel waved a hand, and more of his people grabbed them, hauling them to their feet far more gently than they had the previous prisoner. They released their ankles and then helped them to walk out, rounding up the rest of his escort as they did.

"Spectre." Kaste hadn't turned to follow, the aged slump returning as he sighed. "I am ashamed by the actions of one who I believed in, and I must offer what restitution an old man can. What boon would you ask of me?"

Shepard apparently hadn't expected that, glancing at Garrus in confusion. He gave her a quick, go-with-it motion, and she licked her lips before nodding. "Your regiment is to withdraw after the pirates and Geth have been eliminated, yes?"

"Yes."

"Take the bases's staff with you when you leave. Abandon this base, but do not demolish it when you do. Leave it intact."

Kaste went still as he regarded her. "That is... more than I able to give, Spectre. I must destroy the local servers, they hold confidential data that belongs to the Lady. If you allow me to do so, I will do as you wish and leave he rest of this facility intact."

"That is acceptable." Of course it was. The Alliance was just about to get a massive, well defended base that they could use to help secure the entire nebula. Whoever lead the Corsairs was probably going to kiss her if they could stop shrieking in happiness first. "Thank you."

"Thanks are not needed, honor had to be repaid, the scales balanced." He gave her a polite nod, then turned to me. "I do, however, thank you for you discretion Reyja'krem. You could have killed them."

I bowed my head politely a hair to the left, but said nothing.

And then the Colonel was gone, striding tiredly out of the room and leaving the rest of us standing and sitting in an awkward silence.

"All right, Kean, Garrus, someone explain to me what the fuck that was about?" Shepard groaned, almost slumping as her eyes flicked between us. "Why did he start talking like a noble from the middle ages about boons and repayment and all that?"

"That's Xenthan culture." I shrugged a little and fought not to let my head fall to the table in a very human show of exhaustion. "T'Ravt likes and encourages that kind of thing, as did the Turian warlords that ran the place before her. Take a mix of Turian nobility and Batarian notions of honor, and it comes out as... well, something that."

She just stared at me for a moment, then shook her head. "None of the pirates bearing her flag act like that. And I've never met a Batarian who understands honor. From the Hegemony, at least."

"We traditionalists do." Thul rumbled quietly from where he was leaning against a wall, "Those of us who live our lives by the ancient wisdom of the Pillars of Strength. All five, not merely those we wish to follow. But we are a minority, in this time. It is unfortunate. The Lady Warlord is from an age when my people were... less corrupt."

It had cost him something to add the last bit, and I bowed my head deeply in thanks. His own dipped in return, thanking me for the respect I offered. For her part, something had seemed to click in the Spectre's head, and she flicked her eyes between Thul and myself. "The rumors of Civil War in the Hegemony. The killings of people with your title. The bounties on your heads. It's about that, isn't it? You're all traditionalists."

"Somewhat. I am, assuredly." The former priest sighed through his teeth. "The war against the Blue Suns gave the Traditionalist movement power and war heroes, it rallied many of the lower castes to those highborn who understood that they had a duty to those beneath them. Those who do not did not wish to share the power they had seized, and so conflict began."

Korolev, I noticed in the background, was listening raptly, her mouth a little open as she stared at Thul. I couldn't really blame her, this was probably the first time she'd realized that Batarians even _had_ a culture.

"And here I thought Alliance politics was bad." Ashley Williams spoke, her voice almost bemused as she shook her head. "Damn."

"Williams." Shepard spoke, only for Thul to shake his head benignly.

"It is quite all right, Spectre. I am aware of my people's failings, no insult is taken." I wasn't sure who that surprised more, Williams or Shepard. "But I do believe that it is late, and that we should return to sleep."

There was a general murmur of assent there, everyone standing or pushing away from walls they'd been leaning on. I needed a moment to gather myself before rising, and found my normally rigid posture little more than a slump as I leaned on my cane.

Goddess but I was tired, I just wanted to sleep. Shit, with how tired I was it was entirely possible that I wouldn't even have nightmares for once.

"Kean." Shepard's quiet voice interrupted my thoughts, and I forced my vision to focus on her. "About my request. Consider it, please."

I stared at her blankly, then sighed. I was too tired to argue with her. "Just... I don't even care. Send me requests and payment offers, I'll respond on a case-by-case basis."

She stared at me for a very long moment, then nodded slightly. "Agreed."

And then she was gone, catching up to the rest of her people while Illyan moved over to wrap an arm around my shoulders. "What was that about boss?"

I twitched a shoulder, resisted the urge to lean into her for all of a breath, and then groaned when she easily took most of my weight. "Something I don't intend to do, but semi-agreeing got her to shut up and leave me alone."

My friend barked out a laugh, and then helped me get back to the barracks. The trip passed as a tired blur, and I was asleep the second I hit the stiff cot.

* * *

**Silent Witness**

Korolev tried to corner me about two hours after the others had left on their mission, apparently determined to get answers.

I felt a surge of annoyance towards Shepard for leaving the bitch behind. Not that she would have had any reason to be with. She and the Colonel had come up with a simply enough plan that minimized the chances of casualties, and also removed any serious need for most of us to be with.

The cruiser that had brought us, an old Batarian hull named the _Peerless Hunter_ , along with Shepard's _Normandy_ , would hammer the Geth base site to suppress any heavy defenses. Once that was complete, the armor would create a perimeter and blast the complex to pieces as best they could. Only after that was done would Shepard and a small squad join his first Company in making sure that no platforms were active. Considering that no one thought the Geth would last through the bombardment or the tank's barrage, she hadn't bothered to bring her whole team with, and Cieran hadn't even offered for any of us to go.

Which left me here, staring down the human girl as she glared at me. I could at least give her credit for the timing. I'd headed back to our room to collect a tablet I'd forgotten, and the little tit had followed me as sneakily as I'd trailed her into the bathroom the night before.

"We need to talk." She tried to keep her voice low and growling, but it came out as more petulant than threatening.

"No. We don't." I retorted shortly, turning away to rummage through one of my bags. "Go away."

"How did you find about the Matriarch?"

I rolled my eyes behind my mask. Honestly what was so hard to understand about what I'd said? Tuning her out entirely, I continued to dig until I felt the case of a tablet. Yanking it out, I checked over and nodded in approval.

"You said there were others. How many did your group bring over?"

Turning, I tucked the computer under one arm and made to leave, only to find the dirt-skinned girl standing between my bed and Cieran's, blocking me in.

"Are you going to answer me?" Korolev demanded, a hand not quite resting on her pistol as if that should worry me.

"Move." I ignored the question, my tone annoyed.

"Not until you answer-"

I surged forwards, tablet dropping to Cie's bunk as I did. The girl tried to draw instead of blocking, and it was child's play to stop her by simply shoving a knife's blade to that wrist while my other snapped up to rest steel against her throat. I nudged the latter, making her tilt her head back ntil she was on her toes and staring wide-eyed at me.

"Move." I repeated once I was sure I had her attention, keeping my voice low and quiet. She did, stumbling back and keeping her hands away from her weapons as I followed, keeping my blades in place until she was a good meter from my bunk.

"Y-you can't kill me." The girl murmured. "Shepard would end you."

Probably. "If you believe that, why did you move?"

She swallowed, gathered herself and reached up towards one of my arms as if to push me away. I rolled my eyes and pulled back before her hesitant movement got anywhere near me. Shaking my head in disgust, and making sure she saw that, I spun on a heel and stalked back to my tablet.

There was a long silence, and then stomping, angry footsteps followed before she planted herself behind me, probably right in my way. Again.

Dammit Cieran. Why did you have to say no physical pain? This would be so much easier if I could cut up her ugly face a bit. Picking up my tablet, I turned around very slowly and glared at her.

"Answer my questions." The demanded was expected, as was the sight of her fists on her hips as she tried to glare back at me.

I _could_ have just jumped over the bunk and then headed to the door, but that would have been entirely undignified. So instead I simply kept glaring at her, and elected to follow Cieran's example and simply annoy her until she did something stupid. It seemed to work for him and Illyan, so why not?

"Is this your first time intimidating someone?" My tones shifted something saccharine sweet, my head cocking a little bit. "If it is... I hate to break your tiny little heart, but I'm not very intimidated."

Her mouth opened a little, her eyes widened. She hadn't expected banter. "I.. what?"

"You just aren't intimidating." I repeated, sighing as if disappointed and grinning inside my mask as her expression remained stupidly confused. "You're a bit small and your weapon is basic. You could do with some height, maybe breast implants if you want to get Asari or males staring. Oh, you could hire the Krogan that Shepard has, have him loom over you. Might help."

More blank staring, then she shook her head. "What, I don't... look just answer the questions!"

"Why? You aren't offering me anything." I twitched a shoulder. "You're in my way, and that's annoying, but sooner or later someone will realize we're gone. Then you'll have explaining to do. I just have to be patient."

Which wasn't exactly something I was good at... but if I fucked up again Cie would cut my mane off with just his voice.

That thought stream hadn't apparently occurred to her, because she cast a nervous glance over her shoulder at the door. It was a stupid motion, taking her eyes off of me like that. I could have severed her spine or sunk both of my blades into her throat before she could turn back around. It was terribly tempting, but orders were orders...

The girl seemed to slump when she turned back, shaking her head and... her expression became one of pity and sadness. "Why? Why do this? Why help the Reapers?"

I twitched, fought down the urge to kill her for daring to look at me like that. She had no right, no idea what I'd been through, no... Half-closing my eyes, I took a long breath and forced myself to focus on my friends and what they would have said to something so stupidly inane.

Friends. Plural. I'd just thought of Illyan as a _friend._ Keelah, I wanted to vomit now. Swallowing, I forced nonchalant sarcasm into my voice. "The benefits package, of course. I always wanted to become a mindless husk."

"I'm being serious!"

"I know, it shows how much of a moron you are. Don't worry, I won't tell Shepard. Our little secret."

Korolev let out a girlishly annoyed sound, actually stomped a foot, and then spun on a heel and stormed away from me. She stomped out of the door, and if she could have slammed it she probably would have. Instead she punched the control panel and then was gone, leaving me contentedly alone.

"Well that was pointless." I muttered, dropping back onto my bunk and groaning, wishing my mask was off so that I could run my hands through my mane to relax myself a bit.

"That bad? I don't see any blood, I suppose I should congratulate you."

I sucked in a breath, tensing before relaxing as his voice actually reached me. "Cie. You knew she followed me?"

One of his hands rose to stroke the hair around his mouth, a self-satisifed motion. "Of course. She reveal anything?"

"She thinks I work for the Reapers." His little eyes blinked, then he shook his head and snorted, his long mane flowing with the motion. "I have no idea how she came to that conclusion. Kept demanding I tell her who I worked for, how I knew about her, etcetera."

"How'd you get her to leave?"

"I pointed out that she was on a time limit, then I annoyed her."

His reddish-pink lips twitched at the edges. "Did you record it?"

"No, I should have. You'd have been proud." Groaning a little, I put my hands above my head and stretched, my back cracking and then relaxing as some of the stress left me. "How's the battle going?"

"All but over. The tankers and Shepard's Makos are having a kill competition, hunting down the rest of the platforms still staggering around in the snow."

I gave him a glare. "I've never killed Geth with a tank before."

He rolled his eyes and leaned a bit on his cane. "Until yesterday you'd never killed a Geth period, don't be greedy."

"I am no such thing." I sniffed irritably. "I was simply stating that it would have been an enjoyable experience."

Cieran regarded me for a few moments then shook his head bemusedly. "You just want me to lower your punishment."

My arms crossed my small chest as I stared back at him. "I didn't so much as scratch that bitch. And you didn't let me blow up Geth."

"Stay good and I'll think about it." Shaking his head again, he turned and motioned for me to follow. "Come on, let's go show Ayle the plans for her new toy before she's loaded into the medivac shuttle."

Blinking, I shook myself and dragged my gaze away from his tied-back mane, the hair swaying as he moved. Why had I just been staring at him? Oh, right, I still needed to work out the plan to dye his hair blue... and maybe some black. Or black with blue highlights, like when I'd first met him.

"Voya?" His voice was mildly annoyed, and I shook my head again. I could plan later, right now there were things to do. Grabbing the tablet that I'd come in here for on the first place, I bounced to my feet and bounded after him.

* * *

_**Next up is Interlude VI: A New Mission** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're done on Antibaar, the Blades are heading towards the burgeoning campaign on Redcliffe, and Shepard is returning to her own missions. We've got two, hopefully quick, interludes to go and then we'll be in Phase 3. I'll post all of the operation and interlude names in Interlude VII to give some hints as to what will be going on during the campaign.
> 
> The next chapter is done and simply awaiting beta review, so 12 reviews will get it out tomorrow; otherwise it will post on Friday.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	25. Interlude VI: A New Mission

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

**Interlude VI: A New Mission**

_Date: 03-11-2183_

_Location: Omega, The Terminus_

* * *

"Cieran." Nynsi Shaaryak sounded like she was swallowing laughter when she primly sat in the booth opposite me. "What in the name of the Pillars happened to your fur?"

I glowered at her. "Don't. Ask." After a moment, I added an entirely unenthusiastic, "Please."

My former Tarath'shan and lover let out a tiny laugh before regaining control of herself, far too amused for my liking. "As you say."

The pair of us were in Afterlife, on one of the upper decks of the bar. We'd docked with the station the day before, and were currently waiting impatiently for the cruiser that had brought us to discharge its drive into the asteroid. But while the wait was annoying, it was necessary, and it let us get a few procedural matters out of the way.

Such as meeting with our primary source of equipment.

"You got my message about Ayle?"

"I did." She bowed her head minutely, the crystals dangling from her elfin ears reflecting lights across her bared shoulders. Nynsi had apparently been here to meet with Aria about supplying her with a few dozen models of my power armor, and had gone with one of her many resplendent dresses instead of armor for said meeting. The part of me that remembered holding her down while I ripped said dresses off of her entirely approved. "I will of course carry your message to Captain Vasir, and will be sure to alert Reyja'krem ul Massa if the SIU is spotted by any of my people during her recovery."

"Thank you." I dipped my head politely, trying not to glare at the neon-blue strands of hair that flecked into my face at the motion. Tucking them back behind my ear, I forced myself to stay on topic. "Were you able to bring the order with? I know we didn't give you terribly much time."

"You did not, but another buyer partially canceled an order due to budget difficulties. It is waiting along with the rest of your equipment."

I felt myself relax slightly at the unexpected good news. "And the modifications?"

"Unfortunately my engineers did not have the time to complete them," A smile tinged with nostalgia appeared, curling her teal lips slightly. "They are skilled but they aren't you, or even Illyan. All of the required parts are in the cargo container."

"Thank you." I shifted my head a bit further to the left. "That will help."

"I would assume so, otherwise you would not have purchased it." Her voice was dry and amused, familiar tones that made something in me ache.

I exhaled, nodded slightly to accept my own inane comment. "Anything else?"

"Nothing professional." She gave me a little Asari shrug to her right, the motion doing things to her shoulder and dress that my eyes wanted to look at. "May... we speak further?"

It was probably a bad idea, but... I exhaled and nodded politely. "How's business?"

"War has become my business, so it is currently quite good. I am selling your power armor to two warlords, three if Aria agrees to a contract today. Many smaller groups are purchasing the tech mines, and I have acquired two additional factories on Illium."

I blinked a little. "You're doing that well? I know you were having your issues after... after."

Her lips thinned a little, then she recovered herself. "Warlord die Waffe purchased the _Yare Noln_ from me, hoping to replace some of the losses he suffered from Warlord Zaen's attacks."

I stared at her for a moment then snorted as the wave hit the beach, my tone turning amused. "You fleeced him for every credit, didn't you?"

"Of course." Nynsi preened a little, mollified by the implied compliment. "I am currently more financially sound than my uncle was when we met."

"Good. That's good, I'm happy for you." And I was mildly surprised to find that I actually was.

The Highborn's upper eyes blinked slowly. "You...are?"

"I... yeah, I am. I don't hate you Nynsi, time heals, that kind of thing." I leaned back, letting some of the rigidness fade out of my posture as I slumped into a more human slouch. "I'm still conflicted when it comes to you, don't misunderstand, but I don't think I hate you anymore."

My former lover regarded me steadily for several breaths, then moved her chin in a tiny nod. "Thank you, Cieran."

Something twinged uncomfortably in my chest. "Yeah, well... I lost four friends in the space of a month. It makes you think about things."

"Three." She corrected my quietly. "Miss Nought is still missing."

"Yeah... and yes, that's seriously starting to worry me. They should have found her or her body by now, she wouldn't have been in any shape to walk on her own." Dropping my hands to my belt, I rummaged around in a pouch and yanked my pipe out. It didn't take long to drop some dried leaves into it, then strike it to life. "You haven't heard anything?"

"I have not, but you know nearly all of my contacts are on Illium and Khar'shan. I have to rely on the same channels you do for information in the remainder of the Terminus."

"Fair point." I grunted around the wood I'd just put into my mouth, letting the chehala smoke fill my nose and mouth before exhaling. "Dammit. Always something. Do me a favor?"

"Of course." Her response was instant, without even a moment's hesitation.

"When you talk with Captain Vasir, ask if she can get into RI's old files. I want everything they have on a terrorist group known as Cerberus."

Nynsi went still, and her lip actually twitched a little. She knew the name. "Why?"

I took another long pull from my pipe. "She has a history with them, the kind where they might want to throw her on a slab and cut her open. And I wouldn't put it past them to pay off those incompetents in the 91st regiment if they knew she was on planet."

There was a long pause before she nodded. "I will speak with her. Have you considered contacting the Shadow Broker? You should have the funds to request information from him at this point."

I did, but I also didn't trust that damned Yahg. "I'll consider it."

My former lover knew me, probably better than anyone still living. Her head cocked a little to the left as she blinked her lower eyes. Visibly she accepted my excuse, but I could see the thoughts whirling in her head. She didn't ask questions, we were in public after all, and whether or not someone trusted the Broker was the kind of thing talked about only in the most secure and private of locations.

If even then.

"How are you?" The change of topic took me by surprise, and I found myself blinking through the smoke curling from my pipe. "You... don't look well."

I exhaled heavily, more smoke escaped my nose as I did. "You've read the after-action reports we send to the writer you hired."

"I have." She acknowledged. "I know that you are hurting, I... simply wanted to know if there was anything I could do to help. As a friend." When I only frowned at her, Nynsi sighed and then continued."Cieran, as much as I might wish it, I understand that I will never be able to take you to my bed again. Never be able to claim you. I do not... _like_ that, but I have to accept it as you have apparently come to no longer hate me. But you are still dear to me, and I would like to become your friend once again."

I had to turn away, twisting my torso to avoid turning my head. Conflicted emotions rose, fell, and chaotically argued with one another as I puffed furiously on my pipe. Nearly a minute of silence followed before I was calm enough to speak, my voice barely audible as I forced the words out.

"I'm still alive, but... I think I'm starting to break."

Nynsi just stared at me. "Break?"

"Mood swings. I get angry... like, berserker level angry when I'm in a fight. My left hand twitches once and a while, I can't stop it." I shook my head a little. "The chehala doesn't help as much as it used to. Unless I'm exhausted I need a nightcap along with the leaves to sleep at all, and even then..."

"The nightmares." It was a statement rather than a question. Warm hands were suddenly wrapped around my left, squeezing gently. "Cieran..."

I let her touch me for a few moments, then I squeezed hers in return for a long breath before disengaging my limb. "Krom is on Redcliffe, as soon as we catch him I'll have time to deal with this."

All four of her eyes blinked. "That is not a healthy decision, Cieran. If you are in pain..."

My right shoulder twitched. "Healthy or not, I'm not letting Krom get away, or letting anyone else get to him before me."

Something like a wan smile briefly appeared. "Determined as ever. I will research mind healers, perhaps I can find a trustworthy one by the time you have captured your enemy."

"Nynsi, I can-" I shut up when her posture shifted. Her head tilted sharply and all of her eyes narrowed, her bare shoulders becoming rigid with tensed muscle. "... you know what, that sounds more than agreeable."

She gave me a prim, superior little nod, her voice dry. "So glad that you agree. Cie... I have to meet with Aria now, but if you need to talk..."

"I'll think about it." I promised, bowing my head again. Then we both rose to our feet, and I bowed my head politely one last time. "I hope that your day remains profitable, Matriarch."

"Hunt well, Reyja'krem." For a second I thought she'd reach out to my hand again or say something further, then she stopped herself with sad look on her face that vanished behind her aristocratic mask almost before I could see it. After a long inhale, Nynsi returned my nod with one of her own, turned, and began moving away. A dozen or so Batarians and Asari in heavy combat armor stood from their chairs or pushed away from railings they'd been leaning on, quickly forming a cordon around their mistress.

I recognized Chen, in the lead. I gave him a tiny nod of my head, which he returned, and then they were gone. I waited until they'd vanished into the crowd before I sat with a heavy sigh.

That had been... the most I'd opened up to anyone besides Voya since Rane had died. And I'd barely told her much of anything. Athame's ass, maybe it would be good for me to talk with someone besides Voya and Illyan. I wouldn't be able to tell her everything, much as I didn't tell Illyan all of the details, but... I did usually feel a little better after bitching about life to them. Maybe speaking with Nynsi, even by message, would help a little.

Of course... she'd all but admitted to still wanting me, and I wasn't sure how I felt about that. I'd have to choose my words very, very carefully if I wanted to keep her as a friend without implying more. Or I could just not talk with her at all, push her back to a simply professional partnership, and avoid the potential for further heartache all together.

Neither of those decisions appealed to me. Goddess take me but I hated my life sometimes.

Setting my pipe aside, I grabbed at my untouched Moonrise and took a hearty sip from the smooth drink. I let the slightly bitter burn of the Asari liquor work down my throat, using the pain to focus my brain. If and how I would talk with Nynsi, and what that relationship was going to be, was a problem for later. As was the continuing imbalance of my own mind and emotions. For now, I had work to do and other meetings to have.

Nynsi had been met with and good news had been delivered in regards to the equipment she'd brought with. That left a three more encounters to go, of various import. The next was supposed to be with Jona Sederis to go over what, if anything, she knew about Shepard's attack on Virmire. The Citadel and Alliance news networks were buzzing that a battle had taken place there, but none of them were saying anything in specific.

If I was tracking the information correctly, that just left Noveria and eldest T'Soni to go. The Battle of the Citadel would follow once both she and Saren had the Mu Relay's location, so Sederis would probably want to get any people she had on the station off of it as quickly as she could.

Once I was done meeting with the Mistress of the Eclipse there was going to be a quick get-together with Voya to go over what Shepard had given us on Krom. I'd already read it, but right now she was over at the bar poring over it and then we were going to compare notes. After that little discussion, I'd summon the team to go over everything that I wanted them to get done while we were on station. And what I _didn't_ want them doing while they were on two days leave. The only one I was letting skip was Jarick, the kid had already scampered off to the Talon's headquarters to see his girl, as he always did when we were on station.

His girl.

The words stuck with me, making me look around the massive bar. Rane had never cared for the place, a sentiment I agreed with both then and now. We'd been fine in the small dives, where we could sit in relative peace and quiet and simply enjoy our drinks.

No... I couldn't think about her in that moment, especially not so soon after Nynsi's presence had scrambled my brain. Sederis was coming, and I needed to be on an even keel for that discussion. Shaking my head, I extinguished my pipe and carefully set it aside. That done with, I took a long pull from my drink and focused on the flavor of the Moonrise. I let the mixed drink linger in my mouth, then sighed in pleasure when the slightly bitter aftertaste teased my tongue after I'd swallowed.

Of course, my enjoyment faded entirely when I lowered my glass, opened my eyes, and found an Asari sitting primly in the chair across from me. My gun was off my belt in a breath and I nearly had it in her face before my brain caught up with me and I recognized her uniform and features. So instead of pointing a gun at her eye I swore and pulled it back and away, breathing far too hard as I stared at her.

"Excellent reaction time." She murmured, her voice husky and amused. Her skin was a plain blue, her markings white and unremarkable in the same style as her mother's. Apart from the markings, she didn't have much in common with the older Asari. Her features were less curved and more pointed, especially in her cheekbones and jawline, giving her all the grace of a combat knife. "I see mother was correct in her description of your competence. Though I was lead to believe your fur would not be so... distracting"

I swallowed, resisted the urge to self-consciously touch my hair, and tried not to glare at her. "I thought she was the one who was going to be meeting with me."

"She is currently occupied. Warlord Ganar launched a heavy thrust into our section of the Terminus, attempting to draw away some of the forces pressing on Redcliffe." One of her armored shoulders twinged, the yellow plating rising and falling. "Which is why I and my ship are stuck on this station, instead of being home."

Grunting, I dredged through my memory before I recalled the appropriate name. "You are... Leska Sederis, yes?"

" _Captain_ Leska Sederis." She corrected, the same little tones of amusement still present. "And you are Cieran Kean. Your will is fascinating reading."

I stared at her for a long moment. The eldest daughter of Jona Sederis, the leader of the Eclipse's armada, had read my will. Her mother had given it to her. Muttering a quiet curse, I bowed my head and grabbed my drink. I downed the remaining liquid in one go. The captain of the _Blade of Vengeance_ threw back her head and laughed as I did so, and was still chuckling when I gasped for air.

"She said you might do something like that." Mirth made her hard features soften, her grin genuine and broad, sapphire eyes glistening in wicked amusement. "Goddess, the entire thing?"

Coughing, I dropped the empty cup onto the table and tried to catch my breath. "Yeah... she fucking gave that to you?"

"Of course. I do lead the Eclipse's fleet, young human. It would be difficult for me to plan for a war if I did not know who I am going to have to fight."

Reaching up with my right hand, I rubbed furiously at my face once I could breath properly. "I... suppose that makes sense. But... look, my sincere apologies but can we just get this over with? Do you have the information I was hoping to get?"

"Yes." Leska Sederis dipped her head once, not appearing to be insulted. "The research outpost established by Saren Arterius was destroyed nine hours ago by an improvised nuclear blast. Lieutenant Kaiden Alenko and Major Kirrahe of the STG were killed in the fighting, along with a number of Salarian operatives and human marines."

"Anyone from the will?"

She shook her head. "No."

That was something, I guess. I wasn't sure what, but I supposed it was something. Shepard must have unloaded the marines on the ship to help in the fighting, and a few had probably died as a result. As for the major losses... I hadn't known Kaiden, not in actual life anyway, but I was still surprised that the news of his death felt... like nothing. Just a name, a note to be jotted down, something to be considered later in relation to other things.

Athame's ass, I didn't think that said anything good about me.

"Thank you." I dipped my head politely, forcing my voice to remain even. "Anything else she wanted me to know?"

"Several things. First, according to the Shadow Broker who is being paid to monitor such things, your Quarian companion has been added to the Nightwind's kill list." A muscle in my cheek twitched, anger and irritation quickly killing the odd feeling of guilt and uncertainty. The Chosen One had messaged the old bitch about their conversations then. Lovely. "Second, Matriarch Aethyta has been spotted on Noveria, along with several commandos known to owe her significant favors or personal loyalty."

"That's going to be a mess then." Especially since I'd told Shepard, who would tell Liara. "I'll be kept updated?"

"So far as I know." She shrugged carelessly, the first thing she'd done that reminded me of her parent. "Third is something more professional in regards to my own planning. Do you have any details about the enemy's combat tactics, beyond that which is in your will? There wasn't much even with several re-reads."

There hadn't been, I hadn't considered it all that important at the time. I didn't think the games had gone into all that great of detail either... games. _Games._ Matriarch T'Ravt had seen fit to give me that information, that was much more accurate a thought.

"I... might have a few things." I shook my head a little. "Nothing huge but a few details. The... _enemy_ ," It seemed a safer word to say aloud than Reapers, "Pretty much had it their way in space. The Turians could hold them back but only with severe losses, they couldn't keep it up. I think they did manage a few maneuvers... maybe relying on the enemies lack of maneuverability? Sorry, I wasn't given much on that."

"No, it's understandable." Her head shook a little. "I consider us lucky to have any forewarning at all. This will not be an easy fight, young human. This enemy lacks everything that we assume modern battle needs."

"Yeah. No supply lines, no planets to attack, no stations to blow up..."

Leska Sederis nodded. "It is going to be difficult. Mother has begun some preliminary preparations on Illium, fortifying the world, but she can only use civilian assets and contractors until the war ends. Nearly all of our forces are engaged or recuperating."

I perked up a little at the first bit. "What's she doing?"

"Underground shelters beneath Nos Astra and Nos Irrail, deep complexes that we plan to have stretch beneath the polar ocean. Enough to shelter significant population against the fighting that will likely happen on the surface. Trebling the number of heavy surface-to-space batteries around both cities, increasing the nuclear stockpiles, that kind of thing."

"What about the southern arcologies?"

"The heat makes construction difficult." That was probably an understatement, "But plans are being drawn up. I believe she intends to lean on members of the Executive board to heavily expand I-Sec's budget and numbers as well."

Wishing I could sip from a drink, I mulled on that and then nodded. "Building them up as a militia. The Citadel and Republics won't complain like they would if it was an independent group, they think they can influence I-Sec."

"Indeed." Her bright blue eyes shown in approval again. "You are quite intelligent, aren't you? Quick as well."

I restited the urge to figit uncomfortably. "It was hardly a leap of logic to deduce that."

"No," She agreed, "But you would be surprised at how many people would have not understood even such a simple thing. There is already push-back from members of our organization who believe we are strengthening our own enemy."

"Are you..." Of course she was serious. "Morons. You own most of I-Sec's top brass as it is, expanding their numbers won't mean anything against that."

Her lips curled in another beatific smile. "So glad that we agree, young human. Now, if there is anything else you remember about the enemy's combat tactics in space, I would be most appreciative if you sent it to me. I can correlate it against the tactics the Geth have been using."

I tilted my head a little to the left at her choice in words, finding myself responding to the formality of them by reflex. "I'll compile something on our way to Redcliffe then. If I may ask a question of you?"

"You may ask, I do not promise to answer."

"Your father... was Xenthan, wasn't he?"

Sederis turned her head a little, then nodded once. "He was the uncle to T'Ravt's predecessor. My mannerisms, I suppose, is what gave it away."

"You aren't much like your mother. It became rather obvious after that last bit, you sounded more like T'Ravt than her."

"I will admit to being on better terms with Yan than my mother, though I still have not quite forgiven her for taking Xentha. I had hoped to take that world for my own when I was younger." Her head cocked again. "Although, given the politics of the place, I cannot help but wonder if I should pity her rather than be jealous."

I resisted the urge to snort. "I hope to go there, after the Redcliffe campaign. I'll let you know which I think is more appropriate."

"Thank you." She gave me a grave nod only partially ruined by her amused grin. "Now to the final matter. Mother informed me you would not be happy to hear this, but I brought your reinforcements to the station to join you."

Reinforcements? Washana? Why would I be upset about... reinforcements. Plural. And I wasn't going to be happy about it. I felt my cheek twitch. "T'Laria?"

Blue lips curled again. "I do think I could like you, young human, just as mother does."

Sederis liked me... so did her daughter. And I didn't feel anything when I'd heard that Kaiden was dead.

Athame's ass something was seriously wrong with me.

"I admit to not knowing you," My voice became low and tired, and I flicked my eyes away from hers. "But you'll forgive me if I don't consider your mother's approval to be cause for celebration."

"Of course." She rose from her seat, cocking her head a little when I smoothly rose as well. Blue eyes blinked when I bowed my head politely in the Batarian way, and then there was another smile on her face. "If I offered you my hand, exiled warrior, would you press your lips to it as your kind in the ancient vids do?"

I blinked, considered that, and then nodded politely. "I likely would."

"Fascinating." Leska Sederis murmured, and then she did so, moving as if she was wearing a gown instead of combat armor. I snorted, bemused, then bowed over her hand and pressed my lips to her smoothly scaled skin. Then I rose, she regarded with me with intelligent eyes, gave me another grin, and turned to stride away in an extremely self-satisfied fashion.

I watched her go, shaking my head a little as I sat back down. I had the feeling that I'd just been tested... and had passed, but the why remained elusive. Then again, I had a basic grasp of Batarian women and Asari maidens, that was better than most males could claim.

Maybe Illyan would be able to translate for me.

My bemusement evaporated when I remembered what else she'd told me. Sederis approving of me was something more or less already known, and already distressing in its own way. Trena being here was actual news... and not good news at that. Goddess, her daughter wasn't even a year old. She wouldn't have left Nos Astra unless she had a very specific reason to do so.

Well, whatever it was, I wasn't going to discover it just sitting here and staring at an empty drink. Flagging down a waitress, I requested a refill, then fired up my omni-tool and pinged Voya. Two meetings down, two to go.

Of course, if the next two went anything like the last two... I waved down another waitress and added two more drinks to my tab. Better tiredly drunk than tiredly sober after all.

* * *

_**Next up is Interlude VII: Scaled Determination** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back to the normal chapter length for a while, maybe a little shorter. I know you all loved the huge chapters, but there's no way I could manage those for another fifty chapters without breaking something in my skull or taking another year to finish this story. They'll return when appropriate, but for the most part expect the usual 4k-6k range moving forwards.
> 
> This interlude doesn't cover much at first glance, but might reveal a few things. Nynsi and Cie are trying to piece together a new friendship, maybeish, but at least she's coming through for him right now. And we finally meet another Sederis, in this case the eldest daughter who commands the Eclipse's navy. She'll be popping up on and off over the rest of the entire series.
> 
> I intend to have the next chapter finished and ready for tomorrow, so the usual twelve reviews game is still in effect. :)
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	26. Interlude VII: Scaled Determination

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

**Interlude VII: Scaled Determination**

_Date: 03-11-2183_

_Location: Omega, The Terminus_

* * *

Voya was still a little twitchy from having to deal with the crowds on her own. I could tell because she'd grabbed one of my drinks, paused to double-checked with me of what was in it, and then stabbed a straw through her mask to guzzle nearly half of it down in a matter of moments.

I let her, waiting patiently until she'd settled her nerves. "What did you think of the report?"

Her gleaming eyes were half-closed behind the visor as she exhaled. "I can't believe you drink this Asari crap. Too much taste."

Snorting, I reached a hand out and took the drink back. "So you've told me. You all right?"

The glare became something furious and I quickly held both of my hands up in surrender. Rather than respond to the second question, she returned to the first. The tablet Shepard had given me was set on the table while she shifted around the booth to sit next to me. A few quick flicks brought it online, letting us both glance through as she spoke.

"I would have preferred it if that bitch hadn't wiped the Spectre's notes. She probably had that inbred bitch do it, there's nothing for me to recover." I wasn't sure if she was more annoyed at me or at Tali, so I elected to stay silent and let her continue. "Apart from that it seems to be a concise collection of reports on just how unbalanced our target is."

I grunted quietly, taking a slow sip from the drink I'd taken back from her. "Did you pick up on the Asari angle?"

"Of course." A long finger flicked through several pages, tapping a plain image of an Asari. She was rather... boring. Like, the kind of boring spy agencies would kill for. Plain blue skin with no markings, a face that was neither attractive nor ugly, height that was perfectly average for her species. Somehow, even in the flat image, she managed to make the expensive armor she was wearing look simple and unremarkable. "Associate Zero One, real name unknown, a dozen or so aliases that all reference that number."

"Goes well with his obsession about the number nine." I tapped the picture thoughtfully with a finger. "You think the bitch was messing with her acolytes' heads as well? Or is he just copying her?"

"Or she him?" Voya shrugged. "Any of them are possible I guess. You think it matters?"

"If it's an actual obsession, it might. If it's just a theme they enjoy playing on then no. Something to think about, though her influence on him is the more important thing."

The Quarian let out a quiet grunt. "I'll have to do the math, but I think the time frame is a few days."

I nodded slowly.

Throughout all of the missions, there had been a quickly discernible pattern. Whenever Krom was on a mission, and his former minder was along with, his psychopathy and sadistic tendencies were curbed. Like, entirely. His missions became quick, concise, efficient. Clean kills done from places of safety instead of risking being up close and personal. But when she wasn't around, the Krom I'd known seen on Illium and Omega came out. The mind games, taunting his prey and herding them until fear made them panic. Throwing his allies around to be killed simply for the amusement of it rather than because he had a legitimate reason to do so, but he'd allow those who fucked up to live for no reason that I, or C-Sec, could work out.

It wasn't until I'd come across a few raids they'd done in the Traverse, wiping out a pirate ring for C-Sec in one of his very few legitimate contracts, that I'd stumbled across a possible answer. Krom and his Asari had split up for a few of the missions, and then gotten back together for others. Each time they'd broken apart, the initial records seemed to show that he'd initially stayed professional, then started to down-slide. As soon as him and Zero One got back together, his river would go right back onto its proper course.

"She's patching his brain together, somehow. A mind healing technique maybe." Voya murmured my thoughts before I could. "Whatever the Matriarch did to him and you didn't quite work. It... I guess it broke him. She must have to meld with him to keep his soul intact."

"So if she dies," I continued on the same logical current. "It's going to kill him. Maybe not quickly, but there's a good chance he'll go insane. Full-on mental break insane, I mean."

"So..." She groaned. "We need her alive."

"Yeah." Reaching up with my right hand, I rubbed at my forehead. "At least until we can make him talk. Perfect situation is we hit him right after she does whatever she does to him so we have a window to interrogate him."

"Assuming he talks."

"I think if we... if _I_ caught him, he would." Lowering my hand, I tapped the tablet and stared at it for a long moment. "He wants to know which of us is better, him or me. If what he said on Omega... after, if what he said is true he thinks the next step for the survivor is to kill the Matriarch. If we capture him he might tell us what he knows without too much trouble."

"That doesn't make any sense."

I shrugged. "To us? No, I wouldn't tell that asshole anything if I knew I was going to die. But he's not exactly all there even when he's at his best. If it means getting revenge on the bitch who shattered his mind he might talk."

Voya wasn't convinced. "You're also assuming he knows anything that we could use. If he did I would have thought he'd have gone after her already, instead of accepting a contract she offered to kill you and Twelve."

My lips twitched in displeasure at the reminder of his inconsistency. "If I stop being optimisitc will you stop tearing apart my plans?"

"Maybe." Her tone turned wry. "Optimism doesn't suit you anyway, it's weirding me out."

I snorted. "Fine. More relevant information then, combat tactics and operating procedures."

"As inconsistent as everything else." Shifting a hand over, she manipulated the tablet to bring up a few minor reports. "He's used shotguns, carbines, heavy rifles, pistols... no real preference beyond whatever he seems to want to use at the time. Armor is high end but not overly heavy."

"Not much heavy weapons usage though." I pointed out, "None at all that I've seen. He leaves that to his Asari's biotics. Might give us an advantage."

She blinked, then glanced at the report before shaking her head. "I missed that. Is that why you ordered another exoskelton?"

"One of them, yeah. Between me, Glitch, and now Dietrich we might be able to rush him with heavy plate he can't break through and take out any Krogan he's got as guards." Pausing, I took a long pull from my current glass and finished it off. "You and Shyeel take out his partner from range, preferably before she gets her biotics into the fight. Everyone else covers us. Assuming we're hitting him somewhere where he has little support, or when he's trying to run."

"If he's trying to bolt we could cripple the Asari." Voya pointed out. "She might be someone he cares about enough to try and save. Especially if she's the only one keeping him sort-of sane."

I mulled that over before nodding slowly, "Fair point. We'll keep that as an option if the situation comes up. We'll need to get a better read on his location before we can put together a more detailed plan anyway."

"And how many competitors we'll have."

My lips twisted a little, and I grabbed drink number two and took a sip. Krom's presence on Redcliffe hadn't stayed quiet long, and there was a general migration of bounty hunters and other small mercenary groups towards the planet as a result. None of them, so far as I knew, had the same personal stake in capturing him as I did, but the money Aria was offering was enough to buy a colonial planet... so it was hard to blame them.

Of course, running into Shepard again had reminded me that I knew of at least one major talent who might also be gunning for the fame and wealth, and one of the first things I'd done when we'd gotten back to Omega had been to check the local networks to see if anyone knew where Zaeed was. Thankfully that turned out to be in the Dark Rim of all places, apparently taking a break from honest mercenary work to help one of the minor Warlords out there train up her forces a bit. The article in Badass Weekly made it sound like a combination of vacation and recovery time, apparently the old man had gotten torn up pretty badly killing one of Zaen's grand-daughters on some out-of-they-way planet. He'd had to get his fake eye replaced for the fourth or fifth time, amongst a few other injuries.

I'd relaxed a little at reading that. Uncouth asshole or not, I rather liked him, and I really hadn't wanted to compete with him in this particular race.

"We'll just have to be smarter than they are." I said. "We get Jarick plugged into the local intelligence office, I'm sure T'Ravt will have something like that running. He keeps us updated, and we bide our time and let Krom make the first move."

"Let him kill the others, you mean."

"And hopefully expose himself in the process." I nodded. "If we can find a pattern-"

"There hasn't been one before."

"-in his _ally's_ actions," I continued as if she hadn't cut in. "We can use that to track him. Krom might not have a pattern but even Krogan might take notice of someone like him wandering around. I don't think they'd be so stupid to mention him by name, but if they react to his presence in a way that Jarick can plot..."

She nodded slowly. "That could work. He's good at that kind of thing, even with limited data. And most mercenary units our size don't have dedicated analysts, they'll have to pay off T'Ravt's people for information."

"Which will hopefully burn through their cash and leave us as the only real hunters around. And while we wait for a hint, we keep doing missions for Kaste and his regiment and stockpile credits and goodwill. Do enough good deeds for him and he might help us when the time comes."

Voya nodded once again, then stretched with a long groan, her back arching as she put her hands above her head. "Sounds workable, but vague planning is done now, yes?"

"Mostly." I sighed. "There's a... complication. Trena is here."

"Who is... oh. _Oh._ " The last word was more of a quiet snarling sound than an actual word. " _Why_?"

"I have no goddess-damned idea." I admitted. "Apparently she's escorting our new medic. Leska Sederis implied that she intends to stay."

"On Omega? Good, let her. Idiotic bitch will be dead inside of a month."

I gave her a sharp glare that made her shrink a little. "Her daughter isn't even a year old, Voya. I may not _like_ her right now but that's too far."

"I... fine." She grumbled quietly. "Tell me she isn't staying."

"She isn't staying." I repeated. "What I don't understand is why she's here at all."

"Call the bitch and find out then. And give me one of your drinks."

"Are you going to annoy me about its taste again?"

"Probably."

"Then no." I pointedly shifted my arm and pushed both of them a bit to the right where her shorter arms wouldn't be able to reach around me.

"Asshole."

"You colored my hair neon-blue while I was asleep." I reminded her archly, already bringing my omni-tool to life. "You're lucky I let you have any of the first one."

Silver eyes narrowed to slits, and she let out an annoyed huffing sound before settling back to wait for me to send out the messages. It didn't take me long, pinging everyone but Jarick to get their asses over here to go over the usual rules of being on Omega for a few days on leave. And to introduce our new member.

After about a minute the glare from my left grew annoying enough that I sighed and flagged down the waitress, ordering a Turian brandy that I knew Voya liked. She didn't thank me, as usual, but she did stop trying to burn holes in my skull with her eyes.

Her drink arrived at about the same time as the first members of the unit, all three Asari strolling up in a fashion that made me groan. Illyan was in the center, and had Shyeel and Callada on either side of her with her arms around their shoulders. The smaller Asari had their own around her strong waist, and it didn't take more than a glance to see that their lips were swollen from kissing and small bruises were already blossoming to life on their jawlines and throats.

"Just had to call us boss?" Illyan rolled her eyes dramatically as they approached. "We were just about to find a private room so we could take our armor off."

"Amongst other things." Callada drawled, the hand around Illyan's waist sliding back and lower down. "I don' like bein' interrupted Cieran."

"Deal with it." I shook my head, amusement and annoyance coming out in equal measure. "You can wait a few minutes."

She pouted a little. "Where's the fun in that?"

"Look at it this way." Shyeel leaned around the bigger Asari to smirk at her fellow Reyja'krem. "The anticipation will make it better now."

That seemed to perk Callada up, but she still made sure to be the one sitting in Illyan's lap when the three sat down. For my part, I just sighed and down the rest of my second drink before reaching for my third. Goddess help me, of course I was the one stuck in command now, and had to deal with this kind of thing. I'd have been far more amused if Ayle had had to be the one glaring at the three of them.

Dietrich and Thul were next, the pair arriving one after the other. The former held a massive mug in one hand, and held up in salute as he approached. He took one look at his partner and learned doubled over with laughter. For his part Thul simply split his gaze between the two Asari, glanced at Shyeel, then at me. When I only shrugged he seemed to sigh, then strode over to take a seat beside Voya.

"Jarick?" His deep voice rumbled in question.

"With his girlfriend." I supplied. "He knows the drill."

"Still can't believe that meek little kid has a girl." Dietirch rumbled, taking a long pull from his stein. "I mean, he doesn't even have hair on his damned head, much less a proper beard."

"And... that matters?" Voya ventured after sipping her own brandy through her straw. "To human women?"

"We're in the Terminus, course it does. We aren't like those short-cut assholes and bitches from the Alliance."

"Deet, we been over this. You look like you got moss on your face." Callada reminded him from her place in Illyan's lap, her head not moving from where it was resting against the larger Asari's neck. "It ain't a pretty sight."

Dietrich harrumphed a little, a broad hand reaching up to stroke his massive beard. "That's because you Asari don't have taste. A beard like this is a proper sign of primal virility to us humans."

Voya snorted. "How much have you had to drink?"

"Not nearly enough!" He almost thundered the words, but ruined it by winking at her before throwing his stein back and downing it. "Let's get this over with, I am still thirsty!"

I couldn't help but bark out a laugh and shake my head, "Drop the act for now, you can't celebrate before I tell you the news. And we're still waiting on our new member."

"I'm here!" An almost frantic shout made everyone look around, and it didn't take me long to spot Washana, still in her Eclipse armor, shove her way through the crowd. She skidded to a stop next to the table and started panting for breath. "Sorry... had to... run."

"Calm down and just breathe." I shook my head, "There wasn't a rush."

Washana nodded before almost collapsing next to Thul at the end of the booth. She looked much as she had the last time I'd seen her, like a younger clone of her father. Same dark blue skin, same striking red tattoos. The main difference was in her voice. I don't think Captain Wasea had have ever sounded quite so girly and easily flustered, even when she'd been a Maiden.

"Now that everyone's here, let's get this..." Another figure had emerged from the crowd, walking with a thick cane though she wasn't putting any obvious weight on it. Her expression was carefully neutral, as blank as the dark armor she was wearing. "T'Laria."

"Ape." She replied.

I twitched a little. "I believe I asked you not to call me that."

"I believe I don't give a fuck." I blinked. Several times. That was very Trena, but also very not what I'd expected. While I tried to think of how to reply to that, she continued on. "I'm joining your mission."

"No."

Trena gave me an arch look. "How do you intend to stop me, ape? If you don't let me come with the Eclipse will fly me to that goddess-damned rock anyway and I'll just follow you into the fighting."

There was a low growl from my left. "I could cut your legs apart bitch, see how you followed us then."

The short Asari gave the Quarian a withering glare. "Try it."

"If you all would excuse me." Thul quietly interjected himself, all of us glancing at him as he spoke. "I don't believe we know this newcommer. Introductions would be appreciated, if we are to take sides in this discussion."

My lips pursed a little, but I nodded. "This is Trena T'Laria. Former friend and employer from Illium, and another former RI agent."

"I see." The Batarian rumbled, all four eyes speculative. "And you wish to join us?"

Trena nodded once. "Rane'li was my friend as well. I'm the one who got her and the Ape together."

I twitched again. "You did not."

"I fucking annoyed you both until you realized it. It took me months!"

"Yeah, you annoyed us, but we both realized it without your bloody interference!" I shot back, almost missing Illyan groaning and rubbing at her forehead. "You just wanted me to sleep with her, you didn't give a crap if I liked her or not!"

"Of course I fucking cared if you did or not!" She glared at me. I almost shrank back a bit, I'd forgotten how intense her gem colored eyes got when she did that. "She was a better bondmate than that bitch ever was to you and I knew that even before either of you did! Why the fuck do you think I worked so hard?"

"Because you're an interfering bitch scales!" My mouth clicked shut at the last word, something triumphant appearing in her expression as I fought to control myself.

"Done already?" Shyeel sounded like she wanted to cackle. "Keep going, this is the most amusing thing I've seen in a while."

"Shy." I all but growled. "Not. Helping."

"Didn't intend to."

Closing my eyes, I had to count to ten in four languages. When that didn't help, I struggled through Khellish's hexadecimal numbers, then forced myself to nod. "T'Laria, sit. We'll... _talk_ after I give everyone else their instructions."

Trena, thank the goddess, didn't say anything. Instead she just grabbed a nearby chair and hauled it over by Illyan and Callada, then collapsed into her usual slouch.

I eyed her for a long moment, then exhaled. "All right. The young maiden in the Eclipse armor is Lieutenant Washana, she is our new combat medic. Washana, I'm attaching you to Thul's squad for now. He's my executive officer, you'll follow his instructions."

She nodded to me, and then again to Thul. "I understand sir."

"Don't call me sir." I muttered more or less on reflex before moving on. "Second announcement. Shaaryak brought over our newest purchase, another unit of power armor. Dietrich, congratulations."

The big man blinked. "It's mine?"

"Asari can't use their biotics in it, it's not designed to let them. Voya obviously can't fit, and I want Thul to be more mobile. So yeah, it's yours." I gave him a tight grin. "She's also given us more than a few toys to customize it with for you, so you won't go through any withdrawals."

A few more blinks, then he gave me a broad grin. "Missile launchers?"

"Two. Probably shoulder mounted with ammo feeds running down the back. We'll get it setup on the way to Redcliffe." I shrugged a little. "And you'll be able to carry more det-packs than you currently can, just need to modify them so you can manipulate them a bit better."

"Am I still in Thul's squad, or you concentrating the heavy armor?"

"Still with Thul on paper, but in a fight we'll probably be shifting units around as the situation dictates." I glanced at the Batarian, who nodded approvingly. "There will probably be situations where you, I, and Glitch act as a holding force while Thul leads everyone else, but for now expect the two units to remain as they are."

"Got it." He leaned back in his chair, an almost dreamy look in his dark eyes. "My own power armor, with missile launchers..."

Tuning him out, I shifted my attention to everyone else. "Right. You all know when we leave, don't fucking be late. Also don't get killed or injured, apart from that I don't care what you get up to. While we're en route to Redcliffe there's going to be some reading on our target, I traded information to Shepard for a C-Sec file on him. Voya and I already went through it, but I want you all to do the same. Anything jumps out at you let me know."

There was a series of nods and a chorus of mild interest at that, but when no one had any immediate questions I moved on. "Once we're on planet expect to keep working with the one-twenty-first. Finding Krom isn't going to be easy, not in the middle of a world-wide campaign, so Jarick is going to be making intelligence analyzation his full-time job. If you aren't working or sleeping, expect to end up helping him." No one looked particularly thrilled at that, but no one bitched either. "Any questions?"

"Any word on the Turians?" Shyeel asked somberly.

I hesitated, then shook my head. "Nothing yet. If they're alive they should be on Redcliffe by now, so we'll know when we get there."

"And Jacqueline?"

Another tired shake. "Nothing. Shaaryak is going to help with inquiries."

Her scarred lip peeled back in a grimace, but she nodded slightly. Illyan brought a hand up to rest on her shoulder, and the smaller Asari leaned into the touch.

"Anything else?" No one said anything after a few long breaths and I nodded, trying to turn my voice a little jovial. It came out a bit flat, but I thought the effort is what counted in that moment. "Good, fuck off. Go get drunk, get laid, whatever it is you're all doing. I'll see you on the ship four hours before departure."

Snickers came from at least two of the Asari, the trio quickly draping themselves around one another again. Though this time it was Shyeel in the center, Callada and Illyan supporting her as they headed towards a ramp that would take them to the upper levels. Dietrich watched them go then sighed somberly, turning towards the nearest bar. Thul collected Washana with a quiet murmur, and the pair trailed after him.

Leaving me with Voya and Trena.

Grabbing my last drink, I took a long sip and grimaced a little. It had gotten a bit warm, but it was still rum so I took another mouthful before I set it down. "Ghai send you?"

"No." Trena shook her head once. "Do have a message, but she didn't send me."

I stared at her flatly. "She's not getting my head."

"She doesn't expect to ape. She says she gets that you're pissed, and says she won't push you. If you want her help she'll give it but if you don't want to see her ever again she'll respect it."

I kept on staring. "That was too many words for Ghai."

Her eyes rolled. "So I fucking expanded on it, message is the same shit. Can we move the fuck on to where you admit you need another biotic?"

"No we don't." Voya all but growled. "Especially not you."

Trena glared at her. "That's his decision, not yours bitch."

"Why do you want to come with anyway?" The Quarian continued, her voice still a snarl. "Did that ancient bitch of a Matriarch not have enough information? She needed to know more? Maybe you can help her kill Cie!"

There was a definite flinch at the cutting words. "She wants me dead too, remember?"

"Too bad she fucked up and you're still breath-"

"Voya." I snapped, "Trena. Enough fucking sniping. I am seriously not in the mood." Both of them winced and shrank back a bit. "Trena, you have one shot to tell me why you're here."

She inhaled, then nodded tightly. "Three reasons. One, I fucked up. I didn't think she'd flip out like that, I thought... shit, it doesn't matter, it didn't work. Like I said, fucked up. Two, because I liked Rane, and she didn't deserve what that son of a bitch did to her. Giving him to Aria sounds better than he deserves. And three..." Her eyes flicked to mine for a long moment. "Dammit ape, I'm an idiot, I fucking know that, but you're the first friend I made in a goddess-damned century. I don't want to just lose that."

It was my turn to flinch and glance away.

Dammit. She'd fucked up badly, beyond badly really. We were probably marked for the rest of our lives because of what she'd done. And she'd done it even when I, even when Jona fucking Sederis, had told her what a stupid idea it was. Athame's ass, the only reason Aethyta hadn't sent anyone to kill me was because Sederis was holding one of her daughters hostage. That poor girl hadn't even done anything and Trena's actions had, by-proxy, committed her to the rest of her mother's life as a prisoner in a gilded cage.

By all fucking sense I should have told Trena to piss off.

But... she was fucking Trena. Scales. The one who'd taught me to use a gun, who'd helped buy the old construction exoskeleton we'd turned into power armor. She'd drank with me, joked with me, fought beside me. Helped me get over the fact that I was in a business where it was kill or be killed, and still done what she could to minimize what I was exposed to.

Beside me there was a long sigh and a groan as Voya slumped, grabbing her drink. "Please put her in Thul's squad."

"We need a biotic in ours." I replied quietly. "She's stronger than Shyeel was even before her burn-out."

Trena blinked rapidly, her voice hoarse and almost disbelieving. "You're... letting me come with?"

"Provided you can follow my orders, or Ayle's when she recovers. And with... a small condition, to mollify Voya."

Glowing eyes flicked to my face. "Mollify me?"

"Yup." I felt my lips pull back in a wolfish grin. "I do think that Trena looks a bit out of shape, don't you? Too many drinks and not enough time working out."

Voya blinked, then I saw her eyes curl behind her mask. "She is a bit of a fat little bosh'tet. I suppose I could lower myself to make an exercise regimen for her."

The hopeful, almost teary expression on Trena's face had vanished quickly, and I watched as she visibly swallowed. "Ape... I don't like that expression."

"Don't worry scales. It's just a three week trip to Redcliffe, I'm almost positive that you'll survive."

"I'm not." The Quarian almost purred the words. "Question for you bitch. How's your hand-to-hand?"

* * *

_**Next up is Operation: Landfall** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And Trena is back, and the team now has a medic. And a second suit of power armor. And some information, though not much of it terribly pertinent, on Krom.
> 
> The next phase is going to be a bit different than the prior sections. The team is going to be on Redcliffe for quite a while. They'll be arriving in April of 2183, at about the same time as Noveria goes down, but won't be departing until December (it is, after all, a planetary campaign against a Warlord's throneworld. Zaen isn't giving it up without a fight). The usual tease for the next phase is as follows:
> 
> Operation: Landfall
> 
> Interlude VIII: Active Intelligence
> 
> Operation: Strike and Fade
> 
> Interlude IX: Fallen Paragons
> 
> Operation: Breakthroughs
> 
> Interlude X: Death Knell
> 
> Post-chapter sections will be the various news agencies covering events during the Operations. The Interludes will feature Voya or Trena POV sections.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	27. Operation: Landfall I

I don't own the Mass Effect, nor any ideas borrowed from Logical Premise with permission.

* * *

**Operation: Landfall**

_Date: 04-02-2183_

_Location: Hintertown, Redcliffe, Feralda System, Northern Terminus_

* * *

I let out a low, groaning exhale as the migraine finally faded to the point where I could properly think straight. The legacy of the Matriarch fucking with my head liked to pick the most annoying times to strike, in this case the pain had started while we'd been about halfway down to the planet's surface. The medication I'd swallowed had let me stay upright and coherent enough to politely respond to the welcoming committee we'd met on the surface before making a few quick excuses and leaving Thul to handle the formalities.

Voya and Trena had had one of those weird silent arguments that only women and Asari could pull off, then seemed to agree that both of them were needed to escort me. When I tried to collect myself to argue that I didn't need to lay down, they'd shared a quick look before Voya had simply punched me in the chin while Trena moved to stop me from collapsing.

I'd wanted to tease them about working well together despite the fact that they'd tried to kill one another no fewer than seven times on the way here, but it had been easier to let them haul me along. After a few minutes of walking, they'd ducked into a prefabricated cabin like a million others I'd seen in the Terminus, and thrown me into a cot where I'd remained for the last twenty minutes or so. I could thank the medication for that, without the pills I'd have probably been down for another hour at least.

Fucking things were getting worse. And would probably stay bad for the next year or so before vanishing almost entirely as the healing process finished up. Of course, that was assuming that I just had run-of-the-mill Floating Mind, and that whatever the Matriarch had done to me hadn't broken something.

Shoving that panic-inducing thought away, I forced my breathing to slow and opened an eye. "Scales? Voya?"

"Just me ape." The former appeared above me, her voice a little nasally. The bandaging on her broken nose was responsible for that, it went well with her two black eyes and badly bruised cheek. "The little bitch is helping everyone else grab our shit."

I wanted to get up, but I knew better than to risk moving quickly right away. Instead I kept focusing on my breathing, moving my arms slowly and carefully in preparation for sitting. "I notice you don't call her that when she's in the room."

Blue lips twisted in displeasure. "I still can't believe you _like_ her."

"We've been through a lot of crap together." I pointed out mildly, accepting her help when I rose, swinging my legs to let them dangle off the side of the cot. I took a quick look around the room, and found it plainly adorned. A console against one wall, the bunk I was sitting on, and a small table beside a footlocker off to one side. "And you _are_ shorter than her scales."

"Don't remind me." She muttered back.

I snorted quietly, already rummaging through my memories. "The people waiting for us at the shuttlepad. The Kithans were there, weren't they? And alive?"

"By certain definitions of there and alive ape. Don't worry, you didn't make an ass of yourself." I hadn't been, but I supposed that was good news. "Washana's checking them over, they didn't look all that great. I think the big priest asked one of them to head over here once that was done, update you about what the fuck happened to them."

"That's something." I grunted. "What about the other two? That Lieutenant and the human girl?"

"Senior Lieutenant Ameel T'Syka." Trena pronounced the name with serious distaste. "Is the luckless bitch on General Mascal's staff who gets to liaise with us and the other merc teams. She introduced herself, threw a packet at Thul, then went back to headquarters."

Blinking, I eyed her for a long moment. "Attitude?"

"Acted like Athame herself had sent her to guide us mere mortals through the storm." Her lips curled a little. "She got bitchy when she realized none of us were going to go meet her boss right that fucking second. She thought we should be honored or some shit."

"Tough shit for her then." Even if I had been mentally present and clear of mind I wouldn't have dropped everything right on our arrival like that. That would have implied that T'Ravt's general had power over us, and that we needed his approval or help so badly that we wouldn't even take the time to unpack before rushing to meet with him. Since he didn't, and we didn't, he could fuck off until I or Thul could be bothered to go to... "She say where the headquarters was?"

"We're in it. Sort of. They've basically turned this entire goddess-damned city into a support camp for the campaign on the capital."

I dredged through my memories for a moment. "That's out in the desert, isn't it?"

"Straight west of us." She nodded. "Place we're in is Hintertown, sitting on the last river that still has water in this fucking region. Get used to heat."

A muscle in my cheek twitched. Cold I could handle, but heat... "We'll need extra water for you Asari, plus Thul."

"Already know that ape, it's in the order we made with that Chang woman."

"Chang?"

"That human girl at the landing pad, the one in a tank-top and the cargo shorts." Trena shrugged, stepping back to give me room as I flexed my legs and finally started to get my ass upright. "She's your new orderly."

"Orderly? She with the Kithan's?"

"Nope, some local that got conscripted to support crap. She saw us land and took it as a chance to do something besides menial labor. Or worse." My lips pressed together at the last. T'Ravt's army didn't typically resort to abducting people for that kind of thing, but it was hardy unheard of in the Terminus. "Even double standard pay isn't more than change to you so Thul made the call. Since the furless kid is going to be neck deep in numbers and intelligence and crap, seemed like a decent move."

I couldn't exactly argue with that, so I simply nodded and stood slowly and carefully. When the world remained stable around me I relaxed a little. "Where's she at now?"

"Just outside, waiting to give us the tour." She sucked in a quick breath and then barked, "Chang! He's upright, get your ass in here!" Jerking a hand up to the ear she'd just bellowed into, I gave her a furious glare that only made her stick her tongue out at me. "Payback for some of the crap your little bitch put me through."

Twitching again, I turned away as the room's door slid open and a woman entered. She was of average height, probably around my age, and like her name had implied was of Asian descent. Not a super-model, but I would definitely would have called her above-average in the looks department. Her outfit helped a bit with that. A plain white tank-top and khaki cargo shorts festooned with pockets left a lot of skin exposed, and it was apparently quite hot out if the sheen of sweat on said skin was any indication.

I shook myself a little when I realized I was checking her out, glad at least that my Batarian posture had kept my head level rather than letting it go up and down along with my eyes. Dammit. Being with Ayle might have... _calmed_ me for a while but apparently I was back to looking at anything female again.

"Master Kean." Her voice was rich and modulated, in way that instantly drew my attention to her in an entirely different way. Common laborers from a planet like this didn't talk like that, especially not in carefully unaccented Lowborn-Batarian. They didn't attentively meet the eyes of someone like me, either. "My name is Amy Chang, I just wanted to thank you for taking me on."

I grunted something noncommittal, staring right back into her brown irises. "Who are you?"

She blinked a few times, "I... I just said my-"

"You just said _a_ name" I corrected her tersely. "You sound educated, not many humans can pull off Batarian without an accent, and you're not nearly as nervous as someone of your class would be on meeting people with our reputation."

Her throat worked. "I'm... I was... I _was_ a reporter here, before the war. Zaen isn't as... evil as Ganar. He let us have media and schools, educated workers can do more valuable work than slaves."

"His bondmate's influence." I found myself relaxing slightly, flicking my eyes to her exposed legs and arms. They were very much unshaved, which ruled out an Alliance spy. Or at least, it ruled out a stupid one, and her hair looked like it would reach her waist if she let it down from the practical bun it was in. I'd have to check on the reporter angle, but it seemed plausible. "Sorry for the suspicion, but it probably won't go away anytime soon. We've been burned by traitors before."

"Oh." She swallowed again. "It's all right sir, I understand."

"First, don't call me sir. Second, Thul hired you to be my orderly? What do you plan on doing for us?"

"Um..." Chang blinked a few times, then rallied herself and nodded once. "I'll manage things like procuring food and supplies for you from local stock, and I can work with the army if there is anything you require from off-world. I know most of the people... _assigned_ to logistics, so if you need assistance moving equipment around I can help. Or if you need vehicles procured."

"Like I said ape, everything that kid would be doing for you." Trena clapped me on the shoulder. "Where's the nearest bar girl?"

"Just outside of the compound." From the speed of her response, she'd expected that question. "It's not the best. I would recommend Garham's on the Downstream, it's a few blocks away on the river front. Better service and drinks, they also offer private booths and rooms."

That certainly sounded better than a soldier's bar. "Food?"

"It's palatable si... it's palatable."

I found myself liking her, if only because she'd stopped herself from saying 'sir' unlike Jarick and Washana. My mouth opened to ask if she was up to giving us a quick tour of the compound, only for a knock on the open door to interrupt me.

"Reyja'krem Kean." A tired, flanging voice emerged from a battered Turian woman as she stepped into the room. She had tan plating that was in dire need of cleaning, and the jagged lines of red paint on her face looked like more than half of them had been worn away. Her armor was as battered as she was, with deep cracks barely held together with omni-gel patches, and parts of it were obviously mismatched.

"Reyja'krem Kithan." I greeted politely, bowing my head directly forwards. Her mandibles twitched a little before she did the same. Stepping to my right, I kept my torso facing her before waving a hand at the bunk I'd just risen from. "Please, sit. You look exhausted."

"I would say that I look worse than I feel, but for once I think the opposite is true." She admitted, dipping her head in thanks before shuffling past everyone.

My eyes flicked to Chang, and then to Trena. "Scales, have Chang give you a quick tour of the place."

She grunted, "Yeah yeah, have your private talk. Come on girl, you can show me where that bar is."

"That's not what I had in mind Trena. Shuttle locations, where we keep our gear, where Kaste is setup. You can find the fucking bar later." I paused, then shifted my attention back to the other human present. "Chang, if she tries to get you to a bar, or goddess-forbid, a brothel, find the nearest heavy object you can lift and hit her with it."

"I... um, will keep that in mind." She tried and failed to smother a slightly confused grin. "Ma'am?"

"Trena, not ma'am." Scales corrected her as the two departed, closing the hatchway behind them and leaving me alone with a woman I'd figured for dead. Turning back around, I snorted when I saw that she'd just shaken her head violently. I'd have to make this a realtively concise conversation before she passed out on me.

"We thought you two were dead. SIU?"

She let out a rumbling, growling noise as her mandibles quivered. "Yes. They ambushed us when we were waiting for our ship on Xentha. You want the all-clear phrase Ul Massa gave us?"

"I'm sure you gave it to Thul... but if you wouldn't mind?"

"The SIU can drown in sand while we pour acid in their eyes." I couldn't help but bark out a short laugh, much as I had when Ayle had first told me. "I'm afraid we didn't quite do that much to them, but they weren't eager to chase us after the first week."

My amusement faded quickly. "The first week?"

Idas nodded tiredly. "They hit my mate in the first fight, we had to go to ground and find a doctor. It didn't take them long to track us. There were a few firefights on the way to the starport, but I thought we'd lost them when we smuggled our way off world. We intended to contact Ul Massa from Omega but..."

"They were waiting." I guessed.

Another exhausted nod. "They were likely waiting for your team, but saw us and decided we were too tempting to pass up. Our ship docked in the lower levels, it couldn't have been more than a week before you arrived on station. They had setup snipers outside of Gozu so we couldn't reach the Lady Warlord's territory, then they chased us up to the central docks. We had to use the last of our credits to pay off a smuggler to get out before they cornered us."

One of my hands rose to stroke my braided goatee before I shook my head. "You think they followed you?"

"If they didn't, the fact that every Reyja'krem still on their most-wanted list is here won't evade their attention for long."

"Yeah." Resisting the urge to pace, I frowned in thought instead. We would have the advantage of having an army around us, but that could also be used as cover. All Batarian units were rare in T'Ravt's forces but they weren't unheard of. We'd have to be extremely cautious and paranoid, not an easy thing to combine with the missions we'd likely be on.

"Where is Ul Massa? Reyja'krem Ul Aldaara told us she was injured. Is she safe?"

"She's on Illium, so as safe as she can be in the Terminus. I gave her something to help protect her, and I have plenty of contacts on planet who are keeping their eyes open."

"Good." She seemed to relax, slumping in a very un-Turian like fashion. "I knew her when we were still Harath'krem. She's a good solider."

"She is." I agreed. "And we've lost enough of our kind to those _chenethic_ assholes. If we hear anything about them being on world, we'll deal with them."

Another low growl, but this one had an approving note to it. "Good."

"Any questions before I let you collapse and sleep?"

"A few. First let me stand up before I do collapse." Idas blinked when I politely stepped forwards and offered her a hand. She took it after a moment, and I grunted a little. Turian women in full armor weren't exactly light, go figure. "You're in command then? Officially?"

"Officially I'm Ayle's executive officer, only in charge until she gets patched up and recovered." I stepped back to give her a little room. "Last time I spoke with her, she was planning on receiving her cybernetics and a prosthetic on Illium, but doing most of her recovery here with us. If she's able to, she'd take operational control while I'd still be in charge during combat."

The Turian cocked her head a little, which I thought meant she was thinking. Dammit, it had been a long while since I'd seriously been around one of her people and I couldn't quite remember. "Provided you're as competent as her messages indicated, I have no objections. How is the squad divided?"

"Right now I lead Team One, Thul is Team Two lead." I pursed my lips a little. "With the two of you present we might be able to divide into three squads again."

She nodded slightly. "If you could keep my mate and I in the same unit?"

"Of course. Anything else?"

"Most of it can wait, but... if I may ask, why is your fur bright blue? Was it not brown in the pictures I have seen of you?"

I fought back an annoyed twitch. "Long story, don't ask."

Her mandibles quivered a little. "Ah. Then I will go, I believe the spirits wish to guide me to my bunk."

Bowing my head politely, we exchanged polite farewells and then she left the room. I gave her a few moments, then followed out into the hallway and glanced in both directions. To my right was a dead-end after a few dozen meters, with plenty of doors between here and there. One of them clanged shut, cutting off the muted voice of Washana yelling at someone to stop moving before they undid her work. More quarters, then.

To the left was an open common area, along with the heavier hatchway of an air-tight door. Grunting at the sight of it, I headed in its direction. A quick yank saw it swinging open, and me flinching back as a wave of boiling heat assaulted my face.

"Fucking shit!" I couldn't stop the curse, a hand rising to shield my eyes from the sudden sunlight. "And of course I left my helmet next to the fucking bed."

"Talking to yourself isn't a good sign in any culture." My eyes adjusted enough to let me see Shyeel, apparently having been just about to open the door when I'd done so for her. "Move it Cie, you're in the way."

Having already had second thoughts about going outside, I didn't have any issues falling back inside. The scarred Asari followed, her blue skin visibly wet as sweat dribbled down from her crest.

"How hot is it?"

"Almost fifty." She muttered, shifting the heavy bag she was carrying a bit. "You know there's fighting in the Kocari Mountains down south right? We should volunteer to transfer down there, I'm sure they need a commando-assassin team."

"Don't bother tempting him." Voya sighed as she followed the Asari inside, her own pack slung over one shoulder. "According to the packet that Senior Lieutenant Bitch gave us, Krom was last seen in the capital, along with Warlord Zaen."

Shyeel's branded face twitched a little before she stalked towards the short hallway, speaking over her shoulder as she did. "You just _had_ to tell him that. I would have had him at the mention of snow."

" _Snow_." The Quarian made the short word sound vile. "Is an abomination."

I considered making a crack about her vanishing into a snow drift, then felt the bruise on my chin twinge a little and thought better of it. Instead I let my attention shift as the rest of the team started piling in. Callada, Dietrich, and Jarrick were all carrying their own luggage and assorted gear. Illyan had been thoughtful enough to grab mine, and I made sure to thank her when she walked past.

She promptly suggested another way I could thank her, and I promptly yanked my cane from where it was sticking out of the long bag in her arms and held it in an at-ready grip that saw her hastily move on.

Thul was the last one in, and he closed the heavy door behind him. "Cieran. Is your head better?"

"I've fought through worse." I flicked my eyes in an annoyed glance to where Voya had just vanished into the same room I'd been in. "You know that."

"I do, I also know that you were... especially vicious during that engagement." A bit of an understatement. Turns out fighting when it feels like there's a railroad spike being hammered into your brain isn't conductive to things like restraint, but at least we'd only been engaging Vorcha and Krogan at the time so I hadn't felt especially guilty about anything. "It is likely best that you weren't present."

Grunting, I flicked my head in a tiny left-ward nod to admit that he had a point. "Glitch? Our heavy equipment?"

"The combat mech is standing on sentry duty to protect said equipment." He supplied evenly, "I had hoped to ask Miss Chang for equipment to move everything, or would you prefer for yourself and Dietrich to use your armor?"

I considered the options, then grunted again. "Chang, let's see if she's as useful as she says."

His lower eyes blinked. "You disapprove of hiring her?"

"Hm? No, not the decision on its own, probably a good idea actually. Less things for us to worry about." My left shoulder twitched up and down in a tiny motion. "I just don't trust her."

"Ah. Entirely understandable my friend. Would you like me to speak with her?"

"Are you going to ask her unrelated and bizarre questions that will somehow reveal her as an AIS plant?"

His lips curled a little. "Perhaps."

I snorted. "Fine, go for it, just try not to chase her off or you'll have to do it all over again with the next person we try to hire."

"I will do so. Did you want my report on the local situation now or later?"

"Get your stuff put away, then we can go over everything."

He nodded, turning and lumbering down the hall until he got to one of the few unclaimed rooms remaining. While he did that, I turned back to the small common area and took the time to get a better look at it. Much as the room I'd been in, there wasn't much to see. A limited amount of cheap furniture on one side, just a couch and a trio of battered chairs. We'd need to buy, steal, or scavenge more if we were going to be here long term.

The other side of the room was a tiny kitchen area, and was equally as basic. A double-fridge was simple but large enough, and I nodded firmly in approval at the sight of a tea-maker on the counter beside it. No oven, just a pair of microwaves, so we wouldn't be cooking here unless Chang could be convinced to scrounge a grill for us.

Thul came back a few minutes later to find me lounging in one of the chairs, my hands folded neatly across my armored stomach as I stared at nothing in particular. "I take it that the chair is comfortable?"

"Surprisingly so, considering how cheap it looks." I exhaled slowly. "What's the local situation?"

"Planetary or regional?"

"Start with the region. Krom is in the capital?"

He nodded slightly, moving to sit on the couch to my left. "As of last week. Unfortunately it is going to require a campaign to reach the city, and a difficult one at that. The city is protected by a ring of ground-to-space batteries that prevent a low-orbit bombardment, with additional cannon located within the city itself. The guns are protected by massive fortifications with their own shields, conventional artillery, and bunker networks."

I let out a slow whistling breath. "That's expensive shit, even for a Warlord."

"Zaen likely had decades to centuries to accumulate the eezo and specialized workers required." Thul reminded me. "Anything capable of breaching them would likely destroy the city they protect, and T'Ravt is insistent that not be done."

"Can't really blame her. If she can take this rock she'll control all three of the most populated planets in the Terminus, and taking the capital mostly intact would be a boon." I winced as a new thought hit me. "Sederis and Aria won't be happy when this is over."

The broad Batarian shrugged placidly. "They had their chance to invade this world. They elected not to."

"Fair point." I didn't know much about Aria either way, but between T'Ravt and Sederis I knew which one I would prefer to hold more power. "How bad?"

"This city currently houses a garrison of fifteen regiments, and climbing, as a strategic reserve. Thirty more are engaged perhaps a hundred kilometers west of us, their advance has been stalled by attacks around their flanks." He shook his head. "The desert flats, there is nothing for General Mascal to anchor his lines upon. This is the only city capable of housing and supporting an advance on the capital, and Zaen was not unaware of that."

Reaching up, I rubbed my mouth in thought. "Let me guess, the defensive guns stop him from landing troops closer and just shuttling food and water over?"

He nodded. "Just so. There is potential for a thrust from the south, but the Krogan have heavily fortified that entire mountain range. It is entirely possible that the city will fall before they do."

Lovely. "Athame's ass, so we're stuck advancing across a desert to try and get to a city whose defenses have probably been built up over hundreds of years?"

Thul considered that. "You did not mention that we will likely have to deal with the SIU at some point."

"Yeah." I twitched a little at the reminder. "Them too. We'll have to update Glitch's decision matrix again, I think Rane had a few algorithms in there based on what little we knew about SIU practices."

"I know a few common traits, I will speak with Miss Illyan."

"Thanks." I blew out a slow breath. "Our first mission?"

"Will occur next week. The 121st will be fully on the ground and organized, then will be deployed on the right flank. We will be assisting them in seizing a ridge or hill, the notes aren't clear. It's being used as a fire-base and artillery park."

"That doesn't sound like assassinating someone." I pointed out.

He shrugged. "Perhaps it is time we branch out. Have you spoke with either Reyja'krem Kithan?"

"Idas. You trust them?"

"Ayle did." Another calm shrug. "As she did Callada, yourself, Shyeel, and myself. I continue to trust her judgment. How do you intend to integrate them?"

I exhaled and closed my eyes as I thought it over. "Ayle wanted us in three squads for flexibility. Having them both here would let us go back to that format, but we'd need someone to run team three."

"Shyeel?" He offered

"Shyeel's never really run a squad on her own."

There was a pregnant pause. "What of when she was with Jacqueline and Marcus?"

When she'd been with them, Jack had gotten her hooked on a drug that tore her nervous system apart and left her as a wreck of herself. Not exactly a ringing endorsement to begin with, and I knew her well enough to know that she wouldn't take to command terribly well at first. She had the talent to grow into it, but that would take time and possibly casualties. We didn't have the former, and couldn't afford the latter. "That situation was different."

"I already know that, and why you have already decided against her." He supplied, "I was simply surprised that you did."

The fingers on my left hand twitched once, and I curled my hand into a fist before they could do more than that. "She's my friend. Also I'm not wholly stupid. Also, you annoy me, you know this yes?"

Thul let out a low chuckle. "I do. That leaves Callada or Dietrich."

I exhaled heavily. "Dietrich stays with you, I want you watching over Washana and I want her in a unit with power armor. If she needs to patch someone up, that bulk can keep her and the patient alive."

"Callada then. Do you know if she has command experience?"

"No... but I know someone else who does. Trena ran security for the Shaaryak family until she was injured, and ran an RI team after that. She's got the experience, and I trust her. Mostly." My curled fingers twitched again. "It would also leave all three squads with biotic talent. A strong one for you and Trena, while I take the other two. I keep Illyan, Voya, and Shyeel."

Another pause. "I would then have myself, Callada, Dietrich, and young Washana. Team three would only have Trena and the Kithans."

"She'd have four as well. We'll add her as a master controller to Glitch."

"Giving all three teams a heavy armor piece as well." A note of approval entered his low voice. "Can it be trusted to act appropriately?"

"No." My own tones were blunt. "It won't kill any of us, but Rane programmed it to be over-protective and vicious about it. Her coding is idiosyncratic enough that Illyan and I can only nudge it around a bit. Voya handled the targeting and IFF sections so we have more control there, but there's some overrides in the core matrix we've never been able to track down that let it ignore those restrictions if its threat meter is high enough."

"Why not reset it completely then?"

Because... it might have been a psychopathic virtual intelligence, but it was _Rane_ 's psychopathic virtual intelligence. "Because even barely civil or not, it's far more effective than the factory default modes. We'd need weeks to work up more advanced algorithms."

From the long pause he understood what I wasn't saying. "I see."

Letting out a long breath, I shook my head, pressed my hands against the chair's armrests, and pushed myself to my feet. "Come on. Let's get the rest of our crap put away, hopefully Trena and Chang will be back by then and we can scope out the local bars."

"And tell her the good news?"

"Good is relative." I sighed, grabbing my cane from where I'd left it beside the seat. I had a feeling I'd need it to keep a short, angry Asari away from me in the very near future.

* * *

**Alliance News Network: Breaking News!**

_In a daring assault early this morning, Commander Kaya Shepard, Council Spectre, led an attack against the rogue agent Saren's hidden complex on Noveria. Details are still coming in ,but first indications are that Matriarch Benezia T'Soni, accomplice to the cast-out Spectre, was killed by Alliance forces while in the process of attempting to release cloned Rachni._

_Saren Arterius was forced to flee in the face of the Lioness of Elysium, and we have scattered reports that he was badly wounded in the process. Preliminary information indicates that he was able to escape the world, but Alliance officials speaking anonymously expressed hope that his injuries were so severe as to make his survival improbable._

_The Geth flagship utilized by Saren was last seen bearing his body deeper into the Traverse, with the Alliance Fifth Fleet and the Hierarchy's Task Force Sileasian in hot pursuit. We will of course keep you updated as the situation unfolds._

* * *

_**Next up is Operation: Landfall II** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This isn't the most exciting chapter, unfortunately there was a bit of information that needed to be put out and explained before this arc could well and truly begin. The next chapter will cover their first combat assignment on world, and they'll be meeting T'Ravt's General at some point in the near future.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	28. Operation: Landfall II

I don't own the Mass Effect, nor any ideas borrowed from Logical Premise with permission.

* * *

**Operation: Landfall II**

_Date: 04-09-2183_

_Location: The Abyssal Reach, Redcliffe, Feralda System, Northern Terminus_

* * *

"I think we need a new plan ape!" Trena shouted over the gunfire, ducking behind a concrete column as the entrenched enemy in the distance splattered rounds across her barriers. "This shit doesn't seem to be working!"

"No fucking shit." I growled back into my radio, shifting left across the structure we were standing on. After a handful of steps I slammed my shield against Dietrich's, the pair of us creating a metal wall between the enemy and where Washana was rapidly patching up Callada's right arm. "They just has to fucking counter-attack right when we got here. Jarick, anything?"

The kid's voice crackled to life after just a moment. " _Nothing good sir. The Night Sisters are still holding the other side of the dam, and 93rd is still advancing on the far side of the river. They should link up within the next fifteen."_

"The 121st?" I had to shout over the thunder of my gun, the weapon sweeping in tight arcs, pinning down a group of Vorcha who had been trying to advance towards us. One of them was slower on the uptake than the others, and a heavy round blew its chest into bloody mist. The others let out hissing screams of fury, but kept down as more shots sent muddy soil puffing into the air. "Say again, missed that!"

" _I said they're still holding against the attack on their right flank sir!"_

"Dammit." The curse was less directed at the news, I'd more or less expected that, and more directed at life in general at this point.

The initial mission had seemed complicated enough on its own, which had been strangely relieving. Typically when something seemed easy it wasn't, and when something seemed difficult it was but at least you knew that ahead of time. This time things had started off badly when we'd arrived and then gone right on into worse as just how chaotic the local situation was became more apparent.

A few days earlier, the 93rd Xenthan had managed to seize the dam we were currently standing on, and promptly had killed the power it had been sending back up the river valley and into the mountains behind it. As the Blood Pack had control of at least three cities and Athame alone knew how many fortification back there, they hadn't taken that gently. The regiment had already turned away two major counter-attacks, but had lost serious ground on the eastern bank.

To bolster that side, the 121st had been dispatched, along with us, to launch a general counter-attack to retake the hill overlooking the structure on that side. While we did that, the 93rd and their own attendant mercenaries, an all-Asari commando team who called themselves the Night Sisters, would consolidate on the west bank and push forwards to create a buffer zone. Our own specific role had been to land on the dam itself, wait for the 121st to seriously engage the enemy, and then breach their lines to take out whatever commanders could be identified.

Of course that plan had gone to shit about five minutes after we'd landed, when the enemy had launched a third major push before anyone but us and the Sisters were in position. So instead of a coordinated push from atop the plateau the damn was built into, Colonel Kaste and his regiment were trying to slog their way up the narrow roads built into the cliff face and leading up the river valley on the eastern side, and the 93rd had been pushed back nearly a kilometer on the other bank before they'd rallied and counter-attacked.

That left the twelve of us, plus maybe the same number of Asari on the other side, desperately trying to defend the stupid dam alone. If the Pack took it, and if they were intelligent at all, they'd open the flood gates and probably wipe out half of the 121st plus anyone else who happened to be in the valley.

Fuck, the only reason they probably had for trying to take it back instead of just dropping artillery onto it was that they were desperate for the power it provided.

"Idas, Faras, fall back!" I barked out the order, working through a new plan as quickly as I could. Advancing was more or less out of the question, even if we led with our heavies, there were enough enemies that they'd surround and overwhelm us. We were essentially stuck on a broad strip of concrete, with only a few columns and small structures for cover. "Dietrich, empty the launchers!"

"Firewall coming up!" The other human called in acknowledgment. Bringing his shield arm up, he made a few jerky gestures with the hand behind it. He wasn't used to running the armor yet, but he stumbled through the appropriate command motion without screwing it up. Mounted on his armor's shoulders were the grenade launchers that once belonged to Hesh and Ullak, and their nozzles swung up to a shallow angle as the suit interpreted his finger motions

A few moments later was a rapid succession of dull thuds as both weapons emptied their magazines, small canisters tumbling in inelegant arcs before exploding in bursts of Batarian napalm on the hillside. Vorcha let out hissing screams of fear and pain that only grew when Thul stepped out from behind his own piece of cover to hurl his personal store of grenades to immolate a few of the nearer foxholes.

Vorcha, especially when pressed from behind by Krogan, are damned near fearless, but excessive use of fire was the one thing that I'd seen that could make them actually consider their own morality. Sure enough, those nearest to the burning jelly promptly bolted back up the hill. We cut down as many of them as we could over the following thirty seconds or so, before the remainder reached their old lines and things slowly sputtered to a stop.

There was a long groan from Trena as she slumped against her pillar, her helmet shaking as she relaxed. "How long we have?"

"Minutes." Several of us grunted more or less at the same time, but the others quieted to let me speak. "Five at most, less if whatever Krogan owns them is skilled. Washana? How is she?"

"'m fine." Callada growled, trying and failing to push the younger Asari away from her. "Just a scratch."

"Rifle rounds don't cause scratches." Washana snapped back, shifting to plant a foot on the Reyja'krem's chest to keep her down while she leaned down to peer at the wound. "I don't think it's serious but you need to stop moving unless you want to spend a few months healing this stupid arm!"

"I don' need yer bloody-"

"Callada, shut the fuck up and stop moving!" Dietrich snapped about a breath before I could. "Let her do her damned job!"

The wounded Asari seemed to twitch a little, but let her helmet drop back with an irritated groan. Our new medic wasted no time in shifting to a better position to work, rapidly pulling medigel pouches and bandaging from her belt as she muttered to herself.

Letting out a slow breath between my teeth, I glanced around and tried to come up with a better defensive plan than the one we'd had. "Trena... move Glitch up to your position and have it bunker up next to that pillar. Base the rest of your team around it."

She grunted quietly. "You keeping your girls back?"

"They aren't my girls." I sighed, "But yes. Unless we get desperate I'd rather leave them in the center of the dam sniping instead of putting them up front with us."

" _Besides, we have better sightlines back here anyway."_ Shyeel cut into the line, her tone calm. " _Cie, there's already movement beyond the heat waves, looks like they're gathering already."_

I grimaced. It had barely been a fucking minute, hardly a good usage of our incendiary grenades. Dammit. That had been the third time we'd used them to buy time, and we didn't have many of them left at this point. "Illyan, get Dietrich reloaded. Thul, hold around Callada until she's up. I'm moving up to support Trena."

"You have a plan?" My HUD flickered as Thul shifted us to a private line, the Batarian watching as I lumbered past him and closer to where the dam met the muddy soil. "I'm afraid our usual methods of ensuring an unfair advantage are not particularly applicable."

"I don't," I admitted, "And that's largely why. What I wouldn't give for a fucking minefield."

He let out a rumbling hum. "That would be useful. Is there no chance we could trade space for time? Perhaps a kill zone in the interior?"

"And let the Pack rain fire on the 121st on the roads?"

"Ah, quite correct." There was an annoyed hiss of breath, more directed at himself than at me. "And air support is likely still out or Kaste would have dispatched assistance by now."

I grunted as I settled into a spot next to Glitch, the mech and I more or less entirely in the open. The Turians had moved behind the column Trena had been using, likely intending to switch with one another as their barriers and heat demanded. For her part, Scales was moving to take a place behind me, settling in on my left side where my shield would best protect her. "We're on our own. You come up with any good ideas let me know."

"Destroy the dam instead of seizing it in the first place?" Thul suggested dryly.

" _Relevant_ good ideas." I corrected him with a snort, settling my aim as I caught sight of movement. "They're coming. Voya, Shy?"

" _We know our jobs Cie."_ Voya muttered just loudly enough for her mic to transmit it. The low cracks of her Viper snapping off rounds quickly followed her words, several of the advancing figures jerking and dropping as she struck them.

A few seconds later was the duller _thunk_ of Shyeel's Kishok, the Batarian built rifle making something explode in a pleasant little fireball. " _Flamethrower down._ "

Grunting in approval, I settled my gun into the notch in my shield to steady it, then opened fire as well. To my right, Glitch hefted up the oversized assault rifle we'd equipped it with, the mech snapping off shots with almost careful deliberation. Behind us, Trena and Faras started blasting away with their own rifles, tracers whipping up the slope to cut down nearly a dozen rushing Vorcha in short order.

Unfortunately that was a mere tithe of the enemy, and more were still pounding down towards us. At least twenty or thirty stumbled right into the still bubbling pools of napalm, and promptly collapsed with hissing, yowling screams as their feet and legs were burned to crisps. The unfortunate Vorcha were promptly trampled, or had their bodies thrown across the patches of jelly to let their companions race across.

If we'd just had the Vorcha to worry about, we wouldn't have had too many issues even with their numbers. But up and beyond the swarm boiling forwards were a dozen or so hulking forms, heavy weapons clutched in stubby arms as the true members of the Blood Pack opened fire to try and suppress us.

Glitch and I took the brunt of the shots, as expected. My barriers began a steady decline as ricochets screamed off of them, and the mech began droning reports as its own protection began to weaken. Behind me, Trena let out a pained grunt as biotic light made my rear camera flicker, a blue-black orb whipping off to the left side of the advancing enemy. It snapped to life as a swirling singularity, dragging several Vorcha up and into the air for Voya to negligently execute.

The biotic strike was apparently enough to make the Krogan elect to change tactics. I couldn't hear them shouting over the continuous gunfire, but the Vorcha evidently could. The aliens began checking their sprints, diving into the trenches and foxholes that we'd painstakingly forced them out of during the last attack. Behind them, one of the Krogan abruptly pitched backwards, Shyeel evidently having gotten a clear shot, but that still left far too many of them for my liking.

"Cie, I'm moving up!" Dietrich called a few breaths later, "Launchers reloaded!"

"I'll bunker behind him." Thul affirmed before the human had even finished speaking. "I have Illyan helping move Callada into a more secure position."

"Good." Between Dietrich, Glitch, and I we could more or less wall off the 'street' that made up the top of the dam, and Thul's rifle would free up Trena to focus on biotic strikes. "We need to take out those Krogan, after we check their next rush I want-"

An explosion cut me off before I could outline the plan of advance, the concrete beneath our feet trembling with the force of it. Everyone besides Glitch and I staggered with the force of it, and I jerked my eyes to the image provided by my rear-view camera. Fire and smoke was raging at the far side of the structure, where the Asari had been holding out much as we had been. Even as I watched three or four came staggering out of it, clearly stunned by the artillery strike.

Our enemies to our front apparnetly hadn't expected the explosion either, because the incoming fire slowed and cut out in time for me to hear the piercing screams of more shells hurling through the air.

"Athame's sacred ass..." I breathed. "Off the dam! Off the fucking dam!"

I didn't need to shout it twice. Illyan had already grabbed Callada, simply hauling the smaller Asari to her feet as they began to sprint towards us. Dietrich, already moving, accelerated past me as I began to lumber into motion, and soon all of us were rushing for the relative safety of the muddy soil.

A furious bellow preceded a torrent of incoming fire, our enemy not about to see us reach safety. That was all I managed to hear before more titanic explosions began to explode behind us, some Krogan having evidently having decided that the structure was better off destroyed than recaptured. I had no idea if the entire thing would collapse or only part of it, but I didn't have any desire to stick around and find out if the former was going to happen.

"Singularities!" Trena shouted behind her, "In front!"

Suiting action to word, the sprinting woman hurled a hand forwards, another singularity blossoming to life between us and the enemy. A groaning Callada managed her own a moment later, while Illyan let out a tired grunt before her unstable creation snapped into place. The fire that had been hammering at our shields abruptly began to careen in chaotic directions, the gravitic pull of the three orbs protecting us nearly as well as any barrier.

My broad metal feet carried me off of the dam maybe ten seconds later, onto the thin road that curved hard to the left to follow the river. Rather than stay on it, and in the open, I followed everyone else as they rushed into the narrow trench that had been dug beside it.

I couldn't fit, obviously, but I could slow to a halt and plant myself behind it to cover the people behind me. Glancing at my rear-view once again, I swallowed as I saw how far back Shyeel and Voya were.

Opening my mouth to shout at them to hurry, I left it hanging when the Asari grabbed the Quarian around her waist, hunched her shoulders, and then the pair of them nearly slammed into me as Shyeel hurled them forwards in a biotic charge. Both of them promptly collapsed, Shyeel twitching, and Voya ripping her mask off to retch onto the ground.

Before any of us could move to help them, four more figures appeared in sudden flashes of biotic light. Asari in midnight black armor falling and rolling as their own frantic biotic rushes got them clear of the continuing artillery strikes throwing water, fire, and debris through the air behind them.

I stared at the sight for a long moment, then a round careening off my shoulder informed me that at least one of the singularities had collapsed, exposing us once again.

"Get them into the trench! Dietrich, Glitch, suppressive fire!" Swinging myself back into a proper position, I yanked hard on the trigger of my own weapon to try and keep the Vorcha pinned down before they simply swarmed towards us. "Jarrick, warn Kaste!"

" _He knows! He's trying to get his people out of the flood zone!"_

I was about to reply to that when the dam, still being struck by hurling fire, gave a deep shuddering groan and began to give way.

The upper sections near the far side went first, boulder-sized pieces of concrete and metal tumbling down the slope as water propelled them forwards. From there the collapse migrated down and towards the center as the water pressure found every weakness that the artillery strikes had caused. There was a brief pause, as if it was going to withstand the damage and hold together... and then the core of the dam simply gave way with a roar of noise.

Again the incoming fire sputtered to a stop as everyone stared at the spectacle, a veritable wall of water exploding outwards to rush down the valley stretching out below us.

Jerking my eyes away, I shook my head violently. We couldn't stand around and gawk, even if we had no idea if anyone in the 121st was still in the valley. We were still in a fucking battlefield, and self-preservation had to take precedence. "Stay on mission!"

The shout got a few people moving, the rest following as I added a few choice curses and comments about their ancestry in several languages. We managed to get everyone excepting myself and the other heavies into the trench before the Krogan managed to get their Vorcha to stop staring at the rapids working their way south, the gunfire kicking sporadically back to life.

"Glitch, anchor the right side, suppressive fire mode!" Metal groaned as I pulled my flat feet from the muddy soil, lumbering left along the thin trench as I did so. "Dietrich, with me, we're anchoring the left! Thul, status?"

"Two Sisters are out, not about to wake up." He reported succinctly, "They carried the other two in biotic jumps. Shyeel is likewise out."

I let out a sharp Batarian hissing sigh. "Athame's ass. Voya?"

"I'm fine Cie!" The former growled, not exactly sounding her best but she still managed to get up onto a fire-step next to Trena. Everyone else, save the three comotose Asari, likewise quickly moved into positions where they could open fire, rifles and pistols barking as they did so. Given that the trench they were in was at the bottom of the hill, and the Vorcha and Krogan were at the top, our position wasn't exactly tenable. They'd have to seriously duck down to avoid being shot, whereas the entrenched enemy was even more difficult to hit.

Growling, I focused on a trio of foxholes on the left and liberally blasted them with my heavy gun, trying to work out a new plan as I did. "Thul, Trena. We can't stay here long term, any ideas?"

"Which way to the road the regiment is using?" Thul rumbled at once, joining one of the upright Night Sisters in gunning down a pair of Vorcha trying to dart to a closer position.

"Down the road behind us and... Jarrick?"

" _One quarter kilometer down the road, then it turns to loop around the hill you're on."_ He supplied at once, his voice hectic and harried. Headquarters was probably drowning in chaos right now, I could hear shouting and cursing in the background behind him. " _The forward elements are another two kilometers from there, at least two defensive positions checking their advance."_

"We can't walk that shit ape, not with these three out." Trena growled. "We'd have to fucking strap them to you two and that psychopathic mech."

"Can't do that under fire." I agreed with a low snarl, another annoying hiss escaping me as I cut down another Vorcha trying to move closer. Voya snapped off a pair of rounds to drop one of its companions, but at least three more managed to get to a crater before anyone could divert their fire to cut them down. "Shit. Can't stay, can't advance against those numbers. Jarrick, I need Kaste!"

Someone sucked in a long breath, then a new voice cut into the line. Her voice was probably husky and sexual in normal situations, but right now it was tight and cracking. "How in Athame's name are we supposed to hold for an air extraction!?"

"You have a better idea!?" I snapped back at the Night Sister.

She let out a furious little sound, "No!"

" _Kean, this is Colonel Kaste._ " The old Turian sounded harried and distraught, something I couldn't blame him for. " _How many made it off the dam?"_

"Us and fours Night Sisters. We've got three wounded who can't move on their own, need an-" I cut myself off as a Krogan crested the top of the hill, shifting my fire to his hulking form. Dietirch did the same, and he tumbled down, but not before the grenade launcher in his hands bucked. The tumbling canister detonated at the lip of the trench, drawing a pair of wounded yelps. "-air extraction! Who's hit!?"

"Same fuckin' arm!" Callada howled, her voice more furious than pained.

"I'm fine," Another person I didn't know spoke, the other conscious Night Sister I assumed, "Just a scratch."

Kaste's voice all but ran over theirs as he spoke. " _We can't fly over the ridge, they have an anti-air battery up river. They'll have to fly through the opening in the dam and use the river bank as cover."_ That would be... goddess. Where the river bank had been was now basically a cliff edge, and a muddy, ready to collapse one at that. " _Three shuttles, wounded first."_

"Have them..." I risked a quick glance at my rear-camera. "... pull up next to what's left of the dam on our side, it's probably more secure than the bank."

" _Confirmed, hold for ten minutes."_

"Confirmed. Ten minutes." A cuff of air escaped my mouth as the fear threatened to overwhelm the adrenaline and focus that was keeping it at bay. "All right. When they get here, Thul, your team and the wounded on the first shuttle. My team on shuttle two. Trena, you're on rear-guard for shuttle three."

Both of the sub-commanders acknowledged that. I didn't like leaving Trena as the last to go, but her squad was the only one still running at full strength right now. Even if we were all healthy and ready to go she probably would have drawn that detail given the respective weapons load-outs, I just had to hope that Glitch would properly follow orders and get into a shuttle when the time came.

"Kean, they're advancing on the right!" Idas's shout made me jerk my eyes in that direction. Sure enough a trio of Krogan had managed to get their Vorcha moving in a fire-and-advance pattern. They and about ten of the smaller aliens were hosing down that side of our position, while another dozen more were darting down the slope.

"Dietrich!" I snapped, "Grenades!"

"Got it!" The other suit of power armor shifted, its shoulder mounted launchers loosing their rounds in rapid succession. Vorcha stumbled and screamed as the blossoms of fire immolated them, the advance falling apart as they died. The few that avoided the explosions were cut down by Glitch, the mech doing its best turret interpretation as its rifle let out precisely timed bursts. "Out of grenades!"

"I'm handing the rest of mine out, we'll check the next rush." Thul shouted, "Biotics after?"

Sending a trio of Vorcha scurrying back into a trench they'd been about to jump out of, I flinched as a round careened off the armored box around my head. Alarms flashed to let me know that my barriers had collapsed, though the sound of metal striking the armor like rain had already informed me of that. "I want the biotics to cover the wounded getting to the shuttle. I've got one volley left in my flak field, I'll handle the following!"

The next nine or so minutes were among the longest of my life. Krogan and Vorcha routinely sent everyone scurrying into cover with heavy fusillades of gunfire, following it up by advancing to closer positions while only Dietrich, Glitch, and I could effectively retaliate. I had vague hopes that they'd be patient and take their time, seeing as we were essentially trapped between them and a very long drop, but they were dashed almost at once.

We beat back the first two rushes with heavy doses of grenades and tech mines, Voya having more or less abandoned her sniper rifle in favor of throwing incinerates around as quickly as her launcher could load them. But we didn't have an unlimited supply of either, and the heat of our guns was steadily building as everyone was forced to maintain high rates of fire to stop anything from getting to us. Cuts and flesh wounds were starting to pile up as barriers collapsed without any opportunity to recharge, with Voya and Faras joining Callada in the walking wounded group.

Nor were the three of us heavies getting away intact either. Illyan had to command Glitch to fall back after the second push, the mech dragging a leg as it limped backwards along the road and onto what was left of the dam. It's rifle fire wasn't quite accurate anymore, and she restricted it to a cone on the right flank to make sure it didn't hit any of us.

I wasn't much better off than the mech. A pair of Krogan had volleyed carnage rounds into my shield, the third such shot blasting it away entirely. My left shoulder plating was held on more by prayers than anything else, and I'd lost at least four cameras to the constant lighter shots that were raining on me. The VI was compensating as best it could, but my vision was blurry and splotchy in places.

Dietrich, more behind me, was getting off better, but something had jammed up his right ankle joint and was making it a bitch for him to move.

" _Sir,_ " Jarrick's voice was tense when he came back on, " _The first shuttle is passing through the dam's wreckage now!"_

"I see it!" Illyan shouted. She'd followed Glitch to the dam, using the mech as cover while making sure the stupid thing stayed put. "Two more are coming in behind it!"

"Blessed be Athame." I breathed. "Trena, Callada, singularities right in front of us! Thul, Washana, Sister, grab the wounded and get them gone!"

They were moving even before the tiny black holes were popping into place. Shyeel and one of the Asari mercs was awake, sort-of, and could at least stumble along once they'd been pushed out of the trench. Night Sister number two was scooped up in Thul's arms, the massive Batarian simply carrying her bridal-style as he accelerated towards the dam.

"Dietrich, fall back and cover them!" There wasn't any point to shooting with the singularities in the way, they'd warp my shots just as they were doing to the fire coming in at us. It wasn't a perfect barrier, not at this close of a range, but they were curving the shots enough that most of them were going high or smacking into the ground rather than into us. "Illyan, the shuttles!?"

"They're lining up, I think we can fit two!" There was a frantic beat, "We've got two in place boss!"

"Everyone move!" Suiting actions to words, I began to backpedal rapidly as everyone else scrambled out of the trench-line and began running or stumbling along as best they could. Behind us, I could see a pair of smaller shuttles rising smoothly up from where the river had once been contained, their doors already open as they drifted close to what was left of the dam. "Get Glitch into a shuttle, I'll cover with Trena's team!"

"Got it!" Illyan darted in front of the machine, shoving it's gun up as she made sure to get its attention. "Move your machine ass Glitch, board the rear shuttle!"

The machine shuffled awkwardly back and forth, then slowly began to limp backwards as she repeated herself and added an override code to the command. For his part, Thul simply jogged past them, heaving himself and his wounded cargo into the first shuttle.

I didn't have the chance to see everyone else clambering aboard, because the singularities in front of us spiraled out their lives in rather short order. The Asari that had created them were exhausted, and had been pushing themselves too hard for them to have lasted long enough to cover our retreat entirely. We'd honestly been lucky they'd lasted as long as they had, but as they vanished I could suddenly see a revertible stampede racing towards us.

The Blood Pack had seen the shuttles, and they weren't about to let us get away.

"Trena!" It was the only word I bothered to waste breath on, grabbing my gun in both hands as I opened fire. The massive slugs blew Vorcha apart into messy fragments, often driving threw one or more to kill others behind them. I might as well have not even bothered with how many there were, and I abruptly realized that Kaste had likely pulled back his troops that had been advancing up the road, thus freeing up all of the defenders that had been keeping his people at bay.

"Don't stop, get into the shuttles and cover from there!" Trena darted behind me as a wild torrent of tracer rounds suddenly flung itself at us. The Turians who'd been about to stop to try and help stem the tide abruptly lurched back into motion, racing for the extraction vehicles.

"First shuttle is moving, shuttle three is taking its place!" Voya's pained voice shouted from somewhere behind me. "Move!"

I did, backpedaling as rapidly as my armor would allow. Someone, one of the Turians, let out a furious screech of pain, but the swearing that followed at least let me know that they were still alive.

For now at least, the rush was getting closer, and it was getting harder to fucking see much of anything. The furious storm was like a wall of metal hammering against me, and the armor was barely withstanding it. Alarms blared as my coolant line snapped, and more cameras were shattered, leaving me with an increasingly narrower and blurrier view. A carnage round or missile hit me about when I set foot on the dam, and I nearly crushed Trena as it sent me twisting and stumbling backwards.

Fire blossomed in front of us as one of the leading Vorcha opened up with a flamethrower. I ducked my more intact right side against the rush of heat before someone behind us cut him down, the explosion buying us precious seconds as the leading edges of the swarm were flung to the ground.

"We're on the shuttle, just turn and run!" Voya screamed again, her voice barely audible over the continues hammering.

Sucking in a breath, I turned my back on the enemy, uttered a silent prayer that the intact plating there would protect the engine and eezo core, and ran for it.

Trena kept pace with me, glowing violently blue as she hurled a final singularity back over her shoulder to try and cover us. The effort of it sent her stumbling as she tripped over her own sea legs, and I slowed just enough to seize her by the back of her armor with my left hand. Hauling her along like a bag, I could only dimly make out Voya, Idas, and Faras in the only shuttle remaining, all three getting clear out of my way as I hauled my battered frame onto it.

The shuttle rocked violently as I did so, a male voice swearing virulently in Khellish as it nearly barrel-rolled with the force of the impact. Whoever he was he was apparently a damned good pilot, he used the momentum to bank us away from the dam and down beneath the cliff edge, the door sliding shut breaths before the momentum nearly saw me crush Idas as I slid backwards towards the rear of the shuttle.

She got clear just before I hit the rear bulkhead, dropping my gun as I grabbed for the handholds in the ceiling, both of us adding our own oaths to the air as everyone scrambled to hold onto anything they could.

"Sit.. Sit..." Closing my eyes, I licked my lips and forced myself to swallow against my rapid breathing. "Sitrep."

"Shuttles one and two are clear." The same male who'd been swearing reported, his accent much the same as Voya's. "We're skimming the river and heading back to Hintertown."

"Thanks." I groaned. "Remind me to buy you and the other pilots a few beers."

He grunted across the speakers. "It'll have to wait, the General wants to speak with you and the Colonel."

"He... what?"

"Shit... isn't going well. You might be one of the few merc teams still alive."

I blinked several times, then just closed my eyes again and let my head loll back against my restraints. Of course we were. And here I'd thought that things might be sort-of simple for once, or at least, as simple as any military campaign ever was.

Instead... things were going to get even more complicated than they already were.

Complicated.

I really was starting to hate that fucking word.

* * *

_**Nos Astra News Tonight** _

_Stocks are up across the board with news that a combined Citadel task force dealt a crippling blow to the Geth threat in the Traverse late last week. While the details will likely remain under wraps until the fleets return to port, it is known that Matriarch Lidanya led elements of the Citadel defense fleet, Alliance Fifth Fleet, and the Hierarchy's Battlegroup Hessius into battle near Noveria._

_Confirmed sightings from shipping groups in the Traverse and Terminus have the Geth fleet withdrawing at high speed back towards the Perseus Veil. Included in their number is the rogue Spectre Saren Arterius's flagship Sovereign, itself showing clear signs of severe battle damage. Aria's Black Fleet has already begun to organize itself into battle formations around Omega, joined by elements of the Eclipse's Golden Armada, a clear statement that the Warlords are not about to let the Geth simply retreat through the hub system without a fight._

_Combined with reports of Arterius's crippling injures at the hands of human Spectre Kaya Shepard, it is widely believed that the so called Eden Prime War is drawing to a close with a victory for the Citadel Forces. Recovery efforts will likely see improved business for colonial defense contractors, for a full report on the economic impacts of the Citadel's victory see our site on the extranet._

_For now, we turn to the political discussion: Will the Council give the Alliance a seat for its self-sacrificing actions during this crisis?_

* * *

_**Next up is Operation: Landfall III** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter took far longer than anticipated. Three versions, plus changing this one about half-way through, and I'm still not overly thrilled with it. Given that a fourth attempt likely wouldn't be much of an improvement at this point, I'm calling it complete so that we can move ahead to the next chapter where Cie meets with the General and finds out just what is going on across the planet.
> 
> In other news, I'm beta-ing a new story by Ozymandeos: s/12000407/1/From-a-Shard-Darkly
> 
> I'm rather excited about it, and would very much appreciate it if my usual readers could take a few minutes to check out what they've done so far.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	29. Operation: Landfall III

I don't own the Mass Effect, nor any ideas borrowed from Logical Premise with permission.

* * *

**Operation: Landfall III**

_Date: 04-09-2183_

_Location: Hintertown, Redcliffe, Feralda System, Northern Terminus_

* * *

The meeting turned out to be heavily delayed, which worked for me. It gave me the time to make sure that everyone who needed to be in the field hospital was there. Since that was more than half of the team, it had taken more than a little bit of time. Goddess, I wasn't about to complain, that no one had died was a miracle I was more than happy to accept.

Voya had been hit three times, and had gotten plenty of crap into her system from the filth in the trench. Her right arm was immobilized, and she had a thick cast around her left shin. On top of that she was swimming in anti-biotics and stuck inside her full suit, much to her irritation. She already had a fever and was already starting to cough her lungs out, but the Terminus Quarian doctor who'd looked over her had been confident she'd recover. Of course she was going to be angry and irritable even beyond her normally belligerent levels during the process, but that was more or less expected..

Faras and Callada had likewise taken a pair of shots each, though they didn't have the same issues as Voya. The latter just had a pair of flesh wounds in her arm that had been patched up, but the Turian hadn't been as lucky. One of his chest plates had been cracked by the impact, and while it wouldn't kill him it made it painful for him to breathe. He was suitably drugged up as a result, with his mate standing guard over him. She had only been hit once, a gouge in her side that hadn't struck anything vital.

For their part, Shyeel and Trena had both gone past their limits biotically speaking. They pair of them had been promptly strapped into beds with nutrient IV lines going, the medics entirely ignoring their mutual protests that they were fine.

"Can't I get some sleep first?" Illyan groaned as she, Amy Chang, and I walked between several of the prefabricated buildings. Illyan and I were fully armored up, our environmental systems working over time, while Chang was wearing her sensible shorts and tank top again. "Seriously boss, I can fix Glitch up tomorrow."

"Did I say you had to do it this instant?" I replied. "Essential crap to get it mobile again, first thing in the morning. I want it able to have it on the night watch by tomorrow so we don't have to have someone on that shift."

The big Asari grunted. "What about the power armor? And are we still pulling everyone out of the hospital tomorrow?"

Chang glanced at us. "Wouldn't it be safer to leave them in the hospital?"

"It would be if I trusted the guards to not be bribed. They're all but immobile, vulnerable. Best to get them back into our barracks and protected by a mech that can't fall sleep or take cash."

She swallowed. "Oh."

I grunted and turned back to the massive Asari. "As for the armor... we'll focus on Dietrich's first, that'll be my chore. Chang can have someone haul two new shields out of storage plus the parts we need once I figure out what those are."

Illyan glanced at me. "You sure you want his first boss? He did all right but he's not exactly... well, _you_."

"And he won't get used to it unless he uses it more often." I pointed out. "If I'm stuck on foot with the rest of you for a mission or two then I'm stuck, but I don't think we'll be going out for a bit. We should have time to at least get scratch repairs done, I've gone into combat with worse."

"Yeah, that's fair boss. Just makes me nervous as all, I like my bullet shield to be a bit more than omnigel and patched sails."

Snorting, I reached up and punched her arm lightly. "Go tell Thul I want someone to take over for Idas on hospital watch in a few hours. And make sure they put all of our people in the same room. I'll be at our place after this briefing or whatever it is."

"Briefing." Chang supplied quietly. "All of the regimental colonels on this continent will be there, the rest will be attending remotely. I think all of the mercenary leaders will be doing the same."

"Those that survived." I shook my head against a wave of exhaustion. "Did you hear any details?"

"No si... No. Only that the fighting wasn't going well anywhere, and that it was very sudden."

"Great." Letting out a breath, I shook my head slightly. "Right, Illyan, get going. Chang, where's this thing happening?"

"The main command hall." She held out a tanned arm, "This way."

Exchanging quick nods with Illyan, and neatly dodging her when she tried to clap a hand on my shoulder, I followed the human woman out and onto the main street. She tried to set off at a quick pace, only to jerk to a near-stop when I snapped my right hand out to seize her by the shoulder. I didn't put any real pressure on her, but from the way she swallowed I might as well have.

"Um... sir?"

"We can take our time." I pitched my voice low so that it wouldn't carry, "One, I'm exhausted. Two, we need to talk."

It was hard to tell with her skin ton, but I thought she paled a little. "If.. if this is the loyalty conversation, Voya'chi already...um..."

I groaned and let my head slump as I shook it, my armored hand sliding off of her. "By the goddess... of course she fucking did. You have my apologies for that, I was going to try and be more tactful."

She blinked several times. "You... were?"

"Let me guess, she didn't bother mentioning the fact that Jarrick checked into your background and confirmed that there was a local reporter named Amy Chang before the fighting started?" I sighed, "Or that you match the pictures of her?"

"Oh. Um, no, no she didn't." Chang was visibly relaxing as I spoke, her lips twitching a little. "She skipped right to the threats about betraying you all."

"She would." I muttered, more or less to myself. Setting off at a slow pace, I forced my posture back into proper stillness as we talked. "No, this is about your former job and how it might still be relevant actually."

"Relevant how? I thought I heard T'Laria say that you had some writer on Illium cataloging everything for you. And you were in Badass Weekly not that long ago for that fight on Kirkwall right?"

A muscle in my cheek twitched. I had been. Someone, probably one of the soldiers from the 121st who'd been present, had apparently recorded my close combat brawl with the enhanced Krogan, and a still-shot of me about to execute the one I'd killed had ended up on the magazine's cover of all places. Trena had bought a physical copy of the stupid thing, framed it, and then slammed it over my head for being stupid enough to end up in hand-to-hand in the first place. She hadn't bothered to fix it either, hanging it on the living area wall of our prefab with the glass till cracked from where my skull had broken it.

Apparently it gave it was supposed to remind me never to do that again. Tides damned crazy bitch.

"We're not looking for more coverage, no. I was actually hoping you might still have local contacts."

"Oh. You want an informant." She pursed her mouth a little. "I wasn't really that kind of reporter."

"You're respectable, I know." I rolled my left shoulder in an Asari shrug, dipping my head that way a hair. "I'm not asking you to slog through the crap the tides bring in or anything like that, I just want information about one of the new arrivals."

Chang was silent for several steps. "Who?"

"The 91st Xenthan."

Her eyes blinked as she glanced at me. "The.. whole regiment?"

I let out a slow breath. "They were the other unit on Kirkwall when one of our team went missing. She's presumed dead, but no one has found a body yet, and they've long cleared out the rubble. I trust that no one in the 121st would be so stupid as do to something to her, and there isn't much I can do to find out if the locals were involved. But the 91st isn't exactly a reputable unit, if they found and did something to her... I want to know."

"Oh." She bit her lip, chewing on it as we continued to walk down the side street, our pace slow and unhurried. "I'm... not sure I can help. I was a respectable kind of reporter, like you said. I talked to people directly and asked questions, nothing like this."

"It's spy work." I admitted. "I'd do it myself if Ayle was here and healthy enough to run the unit, but since she isn't I have to find someone to delegate it to. And honestly... most of my companions aren't exactly subtle or easy to forget. You'd be compensated on top of your salary, and if you ever think you're in danger you can drag anyone not on a mission along with to bodyguard you."

The smaller human continued to play with her lip for a few moments, it had to be a nervous habit of some kind. "What would you want me to do? In specific? Not walk up and ask them if they killed or enslaved your friend I hope."

I snorted quietly. "No, of course not. There has to be people like you who will be conscripted or hired to support the regiment, ask them quiet questions. Find out what bars the 91st likes to frequent and then ask the staff, the shuttle pilots who aren't in the regiment proper, people like that. If they have any slaves they'd be a good source of information as well."

She turned and blinked at me, nearly stopping before stumbling back into motion. "You've... done this kind of thing before?"

"I listened to customers prattle on about crap, and occasionally kept my ear to the sea while I was in a bar." I corrected. "It's a long story."

At the last word, her demeanor shifted, an almost... _hungry_ look appearing in her eyes. "I can't promise anything, but I'll try on one condition."

It was my turn to blink at the sudden turn around. "Which is...?"

"I don't want more money, I want _stories_. Not what that Asari on Illium is doing for you, I don't want to hear about the fighting. Not just repeating all the rumors either, I want personal stories."

"Personal." I repeated the word slowly. "Tends to be just that. Personal."

Chang stopped and turned to face me, actually crossing her arms in front of her breasts as she glared up at me. "You _are_ asking me to do something that could get me killed sir."

I twitched a little at the last word. "Kean, not sir remember?"

"You _are_ asking me to do something that could get me killed Kean." She repeated, a little smirk on her lips.

My own twitched a little at her tone. "What's with the sudden change?"

"I'm a _reporter_. You said the word _story_."

"And that's all it took?" I snorted and shook my head. "Athame's ass if I'd have known it was that easy I'd have done a better job negotiating."

Her eyes lit up. "So it's a trade? I'll ask around, carefully, and you'll tell me everyone's history?"

Crossing my arms slowly, I let me head fall back slightly as I contemplated the offer. "Everyone will tell you their own stories, on their own time, but only if they want to. If you manage to find anything on Jacqueline, I'll tell you mine. If you don't, I'll still tell you but only when this campaign is over."

She mulled on that for several moments, "You tell me _some_ of yours while I investigate. The part where you were on Illium. You can save the rumor-correction about what you were up to on Omega and how you ended up in the Korlus campaign for after."

I considered that for a few breaths, then nodded slowly. "Deal."

We both uncrossed our arms and held our hands out more or less at the same time. We shook once, then I nodded and waved for her to lead on. "I'll talk with you tomorrow at the bar, unless an emergency mission comes up."

"That sounds like a plan." Chang kept up the pleased expression for a little while, but only for a while. After maybe twenty meters of walking her little grin and vacant expression became a neutral frown, probably as she tried to work out how to do what she'd just agreed to. And probably how dangerous it could be for her if anyone from the regiment _was_ involved and heard that she was nosing around and asking questions.

She seemed intelligent enough, she'd find a way to ask her questions carefully. And if she fucked up, I could always send Illyan and Voya with her. The pair of them might have hated one another but they did work very well as a team, they'd keep her alive. Of course that was provided that the doctor's were right and that Voya would be fine within a few weeks.

Ugh, no. Not going there. She was going to be fine and her usually bitchy self soon enough.

Amy Chang guided me between several buildings and side-streets, eventually bringing us to one of the larger structures in the compound. Circling around it, I quietly thanked her when we reached the main entrance and its cordon of heavily armored Turians and Batarians. The latter eyed me suspiciously, but respectfully so once they saw the logo on my armor. The former just looked at me suspiciously.

"Thanks Chang, I can find my way back." She nodded politely, visibly grateful to not have to go in with me. Her inner-reporter probably wanted desperately to come in and record everything she heard, but she had enough self-preservation to shove it aside and flee towards our barracks with every sign of alacrity.

I couldn't really blame her. She was a very, very tiny finish in this particular ocean, and the population of this building would consist entirely of sharks. Not Greenmouths either, a Warlord's headquarters would be populated by Swordfangs. If she'd been in full armor bearing our logo, I might have brought her in to keep notes for me, but as she was... no. Not with me asking her to ask strangers potentially awkward questions. Better fewer people saw her with me right now.

Shaking those thoughts off, I realized that I'd allowed my posture to slump a little with human tiredness again. Grimacing at myself, I straightened my back properly and gave the guards a polite nod as I approached.

"Identify yourself." One of the Turians growled, moving his white-armored bulk to block the wide and open doorway.

"Back off Bessio." Another guard, a Batarian, snorted as he gave me a slightly left-leaning nod of his own. "That's Reyja'krem Kean, he's expected."

"Kean." The Turian made a clicking sound. "The human who thinks he's a Batarian. You're late."

I stared at him through my helmet, a wave of irritation rising. "And you are making me later by getting in my way."

A high-pitched, almost whistling, growl came from the other guard. He stayed where he was for several long breaths, then only reluctantly shifted out of my path.

"May the goddess save me from bloody self-important idiots." I muttered it just loudly enough for him to hear. The three Batarian guards let out coughing laughs, one of them grabbing Bessio before the idiot could do anything stupid.

"Get inside human." The Turian settled for snarling, trying to loom as best he could with a Batarian as tall as he was hauling him back with one arm.

I pointedly ignored him and strode into the massive building. It, like everything else in the compound, was obviously something that had been built elsewhere. But that was about all they had in common. The headquarters structure was a massive dome, large enough that it had probably needed a specialized cargo ship to haul it to the planet's surface as a single piece.

The entrance hall was small but packed with people, plain-clothed officers with patches from a dozen regiments standing against the walls or sitting in the few benches. A few glanced up when I entered, the Batarians bowing their heads politely, before returning to their conversations. Bowing my own a bit to the right in kind, I flicked my eyes around to find the signs pointing towards the main briefing room.

Following them through the hall, and then down another, I found myself in front of a sealed doorway with a pair of Asari guards on either side, their white and yellow armor freshly cleaned and almost shining.

They, at least, didn't say anything. Instead one of them simply tapped the controls beside her, waving me past with her other hand.

"Ah, Kean." The familiar voice of Colonel Kaste reached me even before I'd stepped into the small auditorium, the old Turian waving me a clawed hand at me from where he was sitting next to the doorway. "I saved you a seat."

"Thanks." I shifted around him before sitting on his right, a Turian woman politely shifting over a little to give me more room.

I glanced around as I settled into place, getting a good look at the room. It was huge, probably taking up a good quarter of the building, and was currently packed to capacity with officers. Most were Turian, but there was a sizable number of Batarians and Terminus Quarians present. Here and there I also saw a few Asari and Humans, but they were very much the minorities.

"Major Vithi Kaste." Turning my torso to my right, I shook myself mentally as I realized that the officer was introducing herself.

"Reyja'krem Cieran Kean." I replied, finally taking her in. Unlike the Colonel, she had the striking blue paint of Xentha, though she shared the same silvery sheen to her plates. "Though I'm guessing you knew my name."

"I did." Her mandibles quivered in amusement. "I'd honestly hoped to speak with you before this, but duty is a heavy burden."

"Agreed." I murmured, glad that we'd ended up back here instead of down and closer to the center. It let me lean my tried body against the wall behind us, and I wasn't too proud to hold back a groan of relief. "Sorry, long day."

"For all of us." She agreed, her voice growing somber. "Did all of your people make it?"

"Everyone's alive, but if you've got an emergency I can only put half the team in the field. No power armor for at least a day, my own is going to take a while." I pursed my lips a little. "How bad did the regiment get hit?"

Vithi glanced away from me, her dark eyes focusing on the staff assembled around a holotable below us. "Most of the Fourth Company was still in the valley, including Captain Kithian. At least a hundred and fifty dead to the water, plus the combat casualties before and after. We won't know the exact numbers until the rest of the regiment is shuttled back."

Grunting, I was about to reply when a low chime sounded from the ceiling. The hum of conversation died out as the staff far below separated, revealing a plain looking Turian male. He wasn't in armor, instead in the same white dress uniform as half of the room. It was... a little disconcerting really, Turians outside of armor just looked odd to me.

"My thanks for your attention." His voice was a deep, rolling thing, and I abruptly realized that he was probably a lot larger than he looked from here. As he spoke, several dozen flatscreens flickered to life on the wall behind him, each showing another officer from the other regiments scattered across the planet. "Those present, my thanks for leaving your regiments in the hands of your subordinates even temporarily. Those remote, my thanks for sparing the time to attend."

I snorted, but kept it quiet. On either side of me, both Kaste's mandibles flickered in equal amusement. After all, no one here had seriously had any choice in the matter.

"As you are no doubt aware, we suffered a severe setback this morning when Blood Pack counter-assaults struck at incredibly inopportune moments for us. I regret to inform you all that the 43rd and 67th Xenthan, along with the 4th Anderfelian, have been all but destroyed on the southern continent. Nearly fifteen other regiments have suffered more than thirty percent casualties, and the situation down south has grown perilous."

There was a low round of mutters, and my amusement died a rapid little death.

The General wasn't done, pacing slowly as he continued to speak. "Additionally, there were direct attacks on the mercenary commands hired to serve as additional commando teams for us, as well as the Lady Warlord's personal Talon teams that she provided for my use. All three of the latter on planet are now combat ineffective, and while my staff is still compiling the numbers, I can be reasonably sure that more than two thirds of the mercenary teams have been likewise taken out."

Below and to the right, a Terminus Quarian female rose. She moved with a kind of stiffness that I thought was age, though I couldn't get a clear look at her from here. When the General nodded in permission, she spoke in thickly accented Khellish only slightly muffled by the re-breather she wore. "During ze fighting, my regiment detected unusual communications between ze enemies to our front and ze Varlord Zaen. Ve have finished decoding zem, and discovered how zis attack occurred. Evidently ze Krogan have kidnapped or enslaved many of ze inbred, and are forcing zem to work. Zey broke our encryption nearly three veeks ago, and Zaen vaited for ze perfect moment zu strike."

"We have of course already changed our codes," The General bowed his head towards her in thanks, the Quarian returning it before stiffly sitting back down. "But we are heavily understaffed for electronic and communications warfare. I have already requested experts from Xentha, and they will be here within the month, but until they arrive we will be changing our encryption daily. I expect every regiment to likewise limit open communications to the bare minimum required for operations."

Sloppy, for an operation of this scale, but it was an understandable oversight. The Blood Pack weren't exactly known for their hacking and engineering work, even Zaen's more efficient, Asari-enhanced branch of the group.

He paused, turning to flick the holotable behind him to life. "Given this limitation, and the overall progress of the enemy over the past local day, we are adjusting our overall strategy. Colonel Metherian, you remain the senior officer on the southern continent. You will continue the controlled withdrawal until you have re-secured the landing zone."

" _We're keeping ahead of them so far."_ One of the talking heads on a screen spoke, the Turian's voice echoing from the speakers above us. " _I've given the others leave to launch spoiling counter-attacks as needed, it's alleviating some of the pressure."_

"Excellent. That ties into our shift. Regrettably, we will be ceasing our advance on the capital for the moment." There was an annoyed chorus at that, mostly from the other surviving mercenaries. I held my own tongue, barely, but I wasn't happy about it either. "In order to secure a defensive line to protect Hintertown. If we lose this city we lose any chance of seizing Zaen's palace at all, so we will be cautious here. That does not mean that we will be inactive elsewhere, I fully intend to take the imitative back and to force Zaen to react to us."

A hand waved at the now floating image of the planet behind him, spinning out like a scroll to provide a two-dimensional map. Several red sections began to appear in rapid succession, each with an icon and a number appearing beside it. "We now have sufficient reserves on both continents to free up several regiments for new operations, along with enough shuttles and landing craft to carry as many as eight units at a time. Your orders are simple: If it assists Zaen's war effort in any way, burn it to the ground. Priority focus will be on vehicles, infrastructure, and mining operaitons."

Frowning, I leaned forwards a little and was mildly surprised to see the 121st had been assigned to a zone. "Looks like we're going raiding."

Colonel Kaste nodded slightly at my mutter, his mandibles twitching once before going still. "You'll need to be involved in the planning process Kean. Hit and run is more what you're used to then I."

General Mascal resumed before I could speak, shifting to something closer to a regular briefing. He outlined the changing time lines to the campaign, then elaborated on how several formations had resisted the Blood Pack's counter-strokes to try and buck morale up a bit, before shifting to logistical matters and how the usage of massive air forces to move nearly eight thousand soldiers around would affect them.

"That is all for now." He settled into an at ease position, examining the room as he spoke. "All Colonels are to report back to their regiments, your omni-tools will have the precise orders and instructions concerning the encryption change and our new operational plan. I would ask that the mercenary team leads present remain for now, we have additional matters to discuss."

I couldn't help but let out a seething sigh of annoyance as both Kaste's rose to their feet. I agreed to meet them the following morning to go over our assigned raiding zone and help work out some kind of plan. Then they were up and moving, along with most of the room. A few minutes later and it was just me and maybe a dozen other figures in irregular armor.

"Please, approach." Mascal waved a hand at the front benches when none of us got up from wherever we were sitting, "I'd rather not use the speakers, quite honestly I tire of my own voice."

My lips twitched a little, and I rose from my seat with a tired wince that my helmet thankfully concealed. Shuffling my way down the stairs, I elected to remain standing rather than sit again. A slight nudge to my left elbow made me glance that way, finding the black armored Night Sister standing there.

"I see you survived." She murmured, her voice husky and low. "Did your people?"

"They did. Yours?"

"Those that made off the dam." Her hands rose and pulled her helmet off. She turned out to have lightly purple skin, with striking features anchored by a harsh jawline. "Mirala."

"Kean." Seeing that everyone else was taking off their headgear, assuming they'd had any on, I sighed and reached up to the same. "Surprised you're sticking around to be honest."

Grey-blue eyes flicked across my face before she turned away with a shrug. "There were only six of us to begin with. Losing two of our sisters is painful... but losses do happen in this business."

"Quite so." The General brought our attention back to himself, and I blinked to see him leaning in a very un-Turian like fashion against the holo-table. "That is partly what this is about. Given the casualties suffered, and the evident fact that you specifically were targeted, I'm offering you all a one-time clause to exit your contracts."

A green skinned Salarian, both of his horns little more than burned nubs, held up a hand. "Stipulations?"

"Nothing more than your usual escape clauses. No taking work with the Blood Pack, no attacking the Lady Warlord's assets for one Citadel year, that sort of thing." His mandibles shifted slightly. "I am surprised that none of you have commented about being targeted."

I rolled my eyes before speaking in Thessian. "Because Krom wants us all dead. We're here for him, specifically. It wouldn't be hard for him to convince Zaen to go all out to kill the people hunting his pet assassin, especially since we're obviously helping your troops out as we do."

"I am curious about another thing, however." Another Asari, this one in sky blue plating the same color as her skin, spoke up. "What came after all of you? And those that died? Was there a pattern?"

"Artillery." A male Quarian growled, his long forked tongue wetting his lips. "We'd just begun a withdrawal or it would have been perfectly aimed."

"Same." Mirala nodded, jerking a thumb at me. "Took out the dam our units were defending. Barely got off it before it collapsed."

"Berserkers." The only other human, a twitchy little Latin woman, spoke around an unlit cigar. "Three of the fuckers."

"Two of them for us."

"Varren pack, came out of fuckin' nowhere."

"Gunships, probably pirates stuck on planet."

The reasons went on from there, more or less sounding the same. Sudden attacks exploiting the fact that the Pack had been listening in on our radio communications with our allies. More often than not whoever had executed it hadn't told the local forces much of anything either, resulting in shock and confusion on both sides as everyone tried to figure out just what the fuck was going on.

"We can confirm that level of confusion almost everywhere." The General confirmed once we'd discussed it enough to notice the pattern. "My intelligence staff believes that Krom may have been the one issuing those orders, and that Zaen was only responsible for the counter-attack on the southern continent."

I grunted, reaching up to stroke the braids hanging on either side of my mouth. "Makes sense." When several of the others only looked at me, I sighed and elaborated. "If Zaen pulls off an attack that takes out three regiments and mauls several others, it might be pushed off as him being personally involved. He could have used it as confirmation that he was reading our signal flags correctly, and struck us exactly when we were becalmed."

Mirala let out an amused little sound. "You're turning me on with the nautical analogies Kean. You speak the language well."

My eyes rolled at the chorus of muttered laughs, and I switched to the Highborn tongue. "My point is he wouldn't have done something so open just to take out a few dozen commando teams. This is a world war, we aren't going to change it overnight. He's got weeks, maybe months to figure out which of our groups was actually a threat worth dealing with."

"Quite so." Mascal's mandibles twitched in a slow movement. "My staff, and I agree with them, believe this could be a sign that Krom is wearing out his welcome with Zaen. He may have to take more active assignments to work his way back into the Warlord's good graces."

The Salarian's dark eyes narrowed. "You mean he will be in the field more often. First you offer us a way out, and then you try to lure us to stay."

"Of course I want you to remain." The General shook his head. "My special forces, both your kind and the Warlord's Talon teams, have been all but decimated, and she has no more to send me. She commands that I give you a choice, and so I am, but I am not above reminding you of why you were here in the first place."

There was a long moment of silence, then the Salarian shook his head. "I've lost half of my team, including the specialists I was relying on to take the target alive. We are leaving."

Mascal nodded, turned to grab a tablet from where it was sitting on the holotable, and tossed it at him. "Sign where it indicates. Anyone else?"

None of us spoke, instead all turning to the man he'd just thrown the computer at. We stayed silent as he flicked through it, obviously reading every line very carefully before nodding, tracing a scribble with his finger, and then setting it aside. "Good luck to those hunters who remain."

He'd barely had time to stand up before the human woman had moved over and taken it, adding her own signature before following him out. A longer paused followed, then a Turian and Batarian both stepped forwards and signed the escape clause before departing without a word.

I shook my head and turned away as the General pushed off and approached where Mirala and I were standing slightly apart from the others. "Reyja'krem Kean. I had hoped to speak with you in person."

My eyes narrowed a little as he approached. He was, as I'd guessed, much larger up close. At least seven feet tall but with the same wiry lethality that all of his species seemed to have. The blue Xenthan markings accented his brown plating well enough, and I bowed my head politely. "General Mascal. I confess to not having heard much about you."

His mandibles twitched a little. "For which I can hardly blame you, after all I am not your prey. Everything else must seem of little import to you."

"To varying degrees." I ignored Mirala's suddenly speculative look from my left. "What did you wish to discuss?"

"The Lady Warlord believed it would please you to know that one of the mercenary teams eliminated in the fighting was an all Batarian group. Their bodies were recovered by our people, and one of them was carrying an omni-tool with specific orders upon it."

I sucked in a slow breath. "An SIU hit squad was masquerading as a merc team?"

"Quite so." He seemed all too amused by that. "Imitation is flattering, is it not? They likely hoped to draw close to your people through false camaraderie."

And now my paranoia was going to go into overdrive. Again. Lovely. "Where there is one, there could be more."

"None of the groups still alive fit the profiles of any known special forces group, my people checked immediately following that discovery." The General assured me. "I have forwarded all of the information to your own intelligence analyst, the young human man. You can verify it is unchanged with my own people, he may have direct access to my intelligence staff."

I blinked. "That's... generous."

"The Lady Warlord does not abide poachers. Neither do I." His voice lowered, his attention shifting from me to the Asari, then back again. "A competitive hunt is one thing, but we suffered enough interference from the Hegemony in the last war. I don't need another campaign thrown into chaos because of them."

"Sir?" We glanced aside to see an Asari maiden, her purple skin looking bright against her white uniform, give the General a quick salute. "Your staff is assembled in the CiC sir."

"Thank you Lieutenant. Reyja'krem Kean. Mistress Mirala." She started a little as the casual name drop, but he was already turning to glance around the room. Three other mercs were still present aside from Mirala and myself; the Asari in blue armor, the Terminus Quarian, and a Batarian man. "You all may return to your units, but please be aware that I may be asking favors of you in the future. Given the circumstances, you will understand the necessity."

"And you'll understand if we refuse." Mirala spoke, her voice smooth. "As you said, we have our own prey to hunt. Our contacts only speak of assisting the unit we are assigned to."

"That is why I used the word favors, but we will discuss that when the time comes." Giving us all a bow of his head, he turned and strode away, the Lieutenant flocking beside him and holding up a tablet for him to read.

Again, none of us moved or spoke at first, the doors sliding shut behind them. Mirala opened her mouth, only for the Quarian to hold a hand up before pulling a small box from his belt. Setting it on the holo-table, he flicked it on with a finger and an annoying hum promptly filled the air.

"Mics are out within five meters, don't stray." He grunted, a three fingered hand rising up to run through his stiff, white shocks of hair. "He was too open to be genuine."

"T'Ravt is normally open about her business." I mused, "As are her people."

The Quarian glanced at me, his glowing eyes narrow. "You trust him?"

"Of course not." I scoffed. "I don't know him. Do any of you?"

There was a chorus of negatives that made the Batarian growl irritably. "We need to correct that. Competitors or not, right now it is only practical we pool information about our employer."

"Agreed." Mirala murmured, her arms crossing. "Kean, you have an intelligence analyst on your payroll, yes?"

"He's already booked past capacity." I shook my head. "Any of you?"

"None of us are millionaires." The other Asari shook her head, "We can't afford to pay someone to just sit around and read crap like you."

"So charge more." My left shoulder twitched. "Or find a local investigator and pay them to analyze his history for you."

She blinked at me. "You think there are any locally?"

"Zaen isn't Ganar. There was a middle-class present in the city, and it's big enough there should have been a few. If there's any around I doubt they'd charge all that much for a report."

"I can handle that." We all glanced at Mirala, "We should meet again, more privately. Do you know the bar Dancing Cheth?"

The Quarian made a face. "It's a dive."

"And loud." The purple Asari pointed out. "Assuming we are not out of the city in one week, we meet there and I will disseminate what I have found."

And I would have to have Chang double-check it. From the cautious nods of the others, they were all planning on doing the same thing.

"Agreed then." I bowed my head politely, "Now if you'll excuse me, it's been a long fucking day. Sleep is in order."

There was a chorus of agreements to that, and we all pulled our helmets back on and filed out of the room.

* * *

_**Shadow Broker Report 987-BN0-Noverian Branch** _

_Broker,_

_My apologies for the delay in this transmission, communications were on lockdown following the engagement. I can confirm most of the what the media is reporting and a few details at this time._

_First, Matriarch Aethyta T'Voth and an Asari commando team was on planet and waiting for Arterius and T'Soni. This is honestly the most disconcerting engagement to have occurred, because that old bitch was setup and waiting like she knew they were coming. They took out most of T'Soni's honor guard, and if Arterius hadn't showed up T'Soni would have been a blue and purple smear on the ground._

_Arterius crippled T'Voth badly enough that her people hauled her out of there and detonated charges they'd scattered through the place. Apparently that moronic Turian had been trying to breed Rachni from a frozen queen he'd found, and the blasts let them loose to start killing anything that moved. I have a confirmed video from a snowcrawler that the queen got out before the entire place blew, but she vanished after that. We might need to get agents in place to watch those old relays sir._

_The last commandos got what's left of T'Voth off world at about the same time Shepard showed up. She and her team pounced on Arterius and T'Soni when they got back to Port Hanshan and kicked off a running brawl through the city. T'Soni went down early, she was too beat up and exhausted to put up much of a fight, but Arterius held out until that huge fucking dreadnought of his slammed into the ground just outside the city._

_Things got confusing as hell after that sir. We know Shepard shot Arterius enough times to make the Alliance call it a kill, but I won't call that confirmed unless I see the Turian's cybernetic body in front of me. Once Sovereign boosted away things stayed confusing, Shepard lit off to join the space battle while Alliance Marines dropped down and secured the entire city._

_I'll be sending more detailed reports as I'm given bandwidth to do so._

_Agent Snow_

* * *

_**Next up is Interlude VIII: Active Intelligence** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well we've now met the local general, gotten the basic idea for the plan that will occupy the next operation, and everyone is more or less in agreement with all of you that Krom was the one responsible for the direct attacks on the mercs. The next chapter will cover quite a few things, and will be longer as a result. Still not sure if the extra POV for this one will be Trena or Voya, but it'll be one of those two.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	30. Interlude VIII: Active Intelligence

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

**Interlude VIII: Active Intelligence**

_Date: 06-02-2183 (Two Months Later)_

_Location: Hintertown, Redcliffe, Feralda System, Northern Terminus_

* * *

"Commander." I tilted my head politely to the left as the shuttle door opened, wishing I had my damned helmet on. Athame's fucking ass I was already sweating and I'd been in the open for all of a minute. "It's good to see you."

"Cie." Ayle ul Massa flinched a little at the bright sunlight suddenly assaulting all four of her eyes, giving me a right-leaning nod of her own as she started to limp down the ramp. She was in a casual dark shirt and pants, not the best idea given the heat, and it revealed the dull metal of her new right arm. The pant legs covered up the cybernetics I knew had fixed up her right calf and foot, but from the way she was limping she wasn't used to them yet. Her cane clicked with every other halting step, and the knuckles on her left hand were tight as they gripped it. "Is it always this hot?"

"Unfortunately, yes." Despite the fact that she looked like she was about to fall over, I didn't make any motion to go forwards and help her. She'd have probably shot me if I had. "But fortunately for us, there is a private, heavily air conditioned, room waiting for us at Garaham's. It's a nearby bar we usually go to."

The other Reyja'krem let out an almost lustful moan at the word 'bar'. "Which vehicle are we taking."

Turning my torso to the left, I waved my left arm in the direction of a landed aircar, its driver visible as she kept the engine idling, "Right there."

She grunted as she reached me, her upper eyes narrowing as I slowly moved along side her. "Who is that driving?"

"Voya." My lips twitched a little at her less than pleased expression. "The medics finally said we can let her out of bed, I don't think she's slept in two days."

"How many times did she rebreak that shin?"

"Only once." My right shoulder rolled in a shrug as we slowly walked towards the grounded vehicle. "The other time... well, it was close but Illyan got her off her feet before she could strain it. She'd have been up and around three weeks ago if she hadn't been such a little bitch about recovering."

Ayle snorted and fell silent, seeming to concentrate entirely on staying upright as she moved. I matched her slow pace, ready to step forwards if she asked, but otherwise keeping a respectful bit of distance between us until we got closer to the car. Once we'd reached it, I stepped around her and opened the passenger side door politely, waiting for her to carefully climb into the backseat before I dropped into the front.

"Ayle." Voya glanced over her shoulder, eyes narrowing above her half-mask, while stiff hair rustled against the seat behind her. She'd had me cut if for her a few weeks back, it had just been too annoying to deal with on top of her injuries. So now instead of having a wild mane of hair she was back to looking like she'd just been electrocuted. "I see you're up and around now."

"The past several months have taught me that 'up' and 'around' are both relative terms." Ayle let herself slump back, and I winced a little at the open show of exhaustion. "The reports from Sederis, and the minimal ones you've been sending, have been the only things keeping me sane."

The Quarian grunted and turned back to the controls, smoothly boosting us off the ground. "Having been stuck in a bed for too long myself, I believe I understand some of your pain."

Our Commander made a noncommittal noise. "Is the rest of the unit meeting us there?"

"They are." Turning to the front, I sighed and reached a hand up to rub my face tiredly. "There's about a million things we need to go over, I wanted to brief everyone at the same time. Would have done it yesterday if I hadn't gotten your message that you were almost here."

"Not your best decision." Voya muttered. "This isn't a stable place to recover from losing an arm and most of a leg."

Ayle gave her an annoyed glare that I could see in the rear-view mirror, then flicked her eyes at the back of my chair. "It's that bad? Your reports were not enthusiastic but I assumed you were being your usually pessimistic self."

"T'Ravt's army is holding a dried up riverbed about seventy kilometers to the northwest. When we got here they were three hundred kilometers _past_ that position." She winced as I spoke. "The situation on the other continent is a little better, they've taken back two cities that fell last month and are fortifying the crap out of them to not have to capture them a third time."

"And our unit?"

"We're rotating." I shrugged as the aircar settled into a smooth flight, heading towards the riverfront. "Each squad takes a raiding mission in turn, with everyone getting at least three days in between assignments. Usually we team up with a platoon from the 121st, sometimes we end up going as a full team to support a company level strike."

"Most of us are averaging two missions a week." Voya grunted. "It was getting rough. Kaste gave us this week off to recover a bit."

Ayle split her gaze, one set of eyes on each of our profile's. "Who was taking your place?"

"No one. This idiot just went out with Shyeel and Illyan." Glowing eyes rolled when I gave her a betrayed expression. "Without his armor for the first few weeks, took a while to get it fixed after Decryption Day."

"We will discuss Cieran's poor personal decisions later, first... Decryption Day? That's what they're calling it?"

"Yeah. Stupid fucking name," The Quarian shook her head slightly. "But it's gotten traction. After that day just about everything's gone wrong."

There was a seething, hissing sigh. "And Krom?"

"If you can hold off for a few moments," I dipped my head a bit to the left to make it clear I was politely requesting. "We're about to land, and I'd rather let Jarrick go over what he's compiled on that asshole."

She grunted quietly. "Very well. What else are you going to outline?"

"Jarrick's handling the crap on Krom," I spoke as the aircar began a smooth, banking descent that would leave us on the bar's rooftop parking lot. "I've got the updates on our employer, our orderly might have a lead for us on Jacqueline, and she and Callada have been digging around on our employer and the competition."

Dark eyes blinked. "Callada?"

"She's less conspicuous than... pretty much anyone else, provided she keeps her mouth shut and lets Chang do the talking."

"Chang... the human orderly? You've had her investigating things?"

"She's a former reporter. Not exactly the best spy but she's done a good enough job at it so far." I shrugged a little. "Didn't I tell you about that?"

"You might have," She shook her head as the car settled onto the ground, Voya killing the motor. "If it was in your earlier reports, I'm afraid I was still heavily medicated when I read them. I'm afraid they didn't stay with me well."

"Ah." I shrugged before opening the door on our side, getting out as quickly as I could to leave her space to exit. "We can go over it when we're inside and out of this fucking heat."

"Agreed." Ayle grimaced as she slowly hauled herself out, and I didn't miss the way she hardly was using her prosthetic arm for much of anything. It was mostly just hanging uselessly at her side, even when it would have been easier for her to utilize it instead of juggling her cane with her other hand as she tried to move.

Still, she managed to get herself out of the car, across the roof, and into the lift without a word of complaint. All three of us groaned quietly in relief once it reached the ground floor, the doors opening to the bar proper, and more importantly letting in a rush of cold air.

Voya and I guided her past the bar and the dozens of booths set into alcoves in the wall, nodding occasionally in greeting to the other regulars and the staff who recognized us. It wasn't exactly busy, given the time of day, but there _was_ an army camped nearby so it wasn't empty either. Garaham didn't have a menu on the back board or anything like that, his people knew to massively upcharge anyone who wasn't a local or an officer. It kept the place far more civilized than most of the other places around town, something that everyone was rather grateful for.

The proprietor himself was behind the bar tonight, and Ayle and I both took a moment to exchange deep bows with the exiled Highborn. He was built along the same lines as Thul, though he was starting to get a bit rounder from enjoying too much of his own drinks and cooking. "Reyja'krem Kean. I take it the powerful woman beside you is the missing Reyja'krem ul Massa?"

"Garaham ul Tython." I felt my lips twitch a little. "She is, and she is highly susceptible to flattery."

"Most of our people are." Garaham chuckled, while Ayle growled a little and whacked my shin with her cane. "Do you have a preference of drink, warrior?"

"Fusionaire, no ice." She supplied, still sparing two eyes to glare at me. "And... is that _kilaya_ bread I smell?"

The man gave her a beaming grin and tilted his head in thanks. "We make it fresh every morning. I will have a loaf sent to the room."

Ayle bowed her head in thanks, then the pair of us resumed walking towards the door Voya had already opened. We passed through it, me stepping aside to close it after us, cutting out the quiet din of conversation and replacing with the pleased greetings as everyone present realized that we were back.

"Commander!" I turned just in time to see Jarrick actually _hug_ Ayle, the bald kid's grin entirely genuine. "You're all right!"

"I..." She clearly had no idea what to respond to that with, and remained standing entirely still. "...yes? Jarrick."

"Sorry ma'am!" He quickly let her go and stepped back, but was still visibly ecstatic. "Master Kean said you were on your way back but I didn't know if you'd be able to walk, it's so good to see you up-"

"Jarrick!" Ayle snapped, but there was an amused fondness to it. "Slow down, and breathe."

"Sorry ma'am." The kid swallowed and did so, stepping back as Thul rose from his seat around the room's massive conference table. The two Reyja'krem exchanged bows of their head to one another before the former priest sat down with a contented expression on his face. Everyone else took their turns after that, bowing their heads, standing to shake her hand and welcome her back, or else introducing themselves.

Once the greetings and welcome-backs were out of the way, and one of the staff had brought Ayle's drink and food, we got her seated at the head of the table while everyone else retook their seats around it.

"Now that everyone's here," I spoke after taking a sip of my own drink, having sat down at Ayle's right side. "Let's get this shit over with. Where do you want to start?"

The Batarian woman blinked several times. She evidently hadn't expected me to automatically resume deferring to her again, and the surprise showed for several long breaths before she recovered her neutral posture. "The local situation, if you would. You said you had information on T'Ravt?"

"Less T'Ravt and more General Mascal, plus a general campaign update." Grimacing, I set my glass down and pushed myself to my feet. I'd begun to realize it was less awkward for me to speak to everyone as a 'commander' if I was moving as I did it, even if it probably annoyed everyone else. "I'll get the latter out of the way first. Like I told you on the way here, the campaign isn't going well overall, but the situation seems to be stabilizing somewhat. Getting another fifteen regiments worth of reinforcements next week should be especially useful, the plan is to have them open up a new frontline down south and make Zaen deal with three landing zones."

My feet began to carry me back and forth as I paced, everyone turning to watch me. Most of them knew the situation, this was more for Ayle, but they were polite enough to not interrupt as I spoke. "Once they've secured the initial space, T'Ravt is going to rotate another twenty newly mustered units in from Xentha so that he has reserves to push the front."

Ayle's lips pressed together. "How many regiments are on planet already?"

I flicked a glance at Jarrick, who dutifully rattled off the information. "Seventy front line units, nearly a hundred second-rate. That is not including the pirates who are being used to garrison what territory has been taken, there might be another fifty or sixty thousand of them all told."

"Quite the little army then." She exhaled heavily. "How many troops do the Blood Pack have on planet?"

"No way to tell." I rolled my left shoulder, turning to pace back in the other direction. "They don't keep track of formations, not in a way that we can keep track of anyway. At least three or four times our numbers in Vorcha, with an unknown number of Krogan."

Our returned Commander's expression turned pensive. "In your honest estimation, can T'Ravt win this campaign without resorting to orbital bombardment or nuclear strikes?"

The fingers on my left hand twitched once. "In my honest estimation... Mascal should win this fight three times out of five without having to go to that level. He's consolidated his forces and is letting the Pack bleed themselves on his trenches until reinforcements get here, and the raiding parties we're involved in are trashing a lot of Zaen's infrastructure. It's probably going to take another eight or nine months... but it's doable."

"Provided he doesn't have any more surprises ape." Trena growled, her pipe moving in her mouth as she spoke. "There was a while there where he was reading our fucking messages before we could."

I grimaced but nodded. "That brings us to the General. Baus Mascal. Third generation Xenthan, he's T'Ravt's top ground commander, and led two of the campaigns in the Blue Sun war and won some impressive victories in the process, but I don't trust him. He's too... _clean_."

Ayle blinked her upper set of eyes. "What?"

"He's... _off."_ Callada muttered, shaking her head a bit. "I agree with Kean 'ere. He be open, a good commander, cares 'bout the lives of his people, and ain't nothin' but polite. No one ends up with power like 'is by bein' that way."

"Thul? Shyeel?" The Batarian woman glanced at the pair of them, than at the Kithans. "Idas? Your opinions?"

Thul carefully folded his hands on the table in front of him. "I believe they are being paranoid. Perhaps justifiably so, but still seeing mirages in the sands. He is a military officer, nothing more or less."

"Agreed." Idas's mandibles flickered, her stoic husband nodding in support of his mate. "He may be in the service of a Warlord rather than the Hierarchy, but he holds himself like a proper General and comports himself as such."

Everyone's attention then shifted to Shyeel. The only other Reyja'krem present bit her lip for a moment, the motion tugging at her branded skin. "On the whole, I don't see anything on the surface to reveal what Cieran and Callada can see in his waters... but I trust Cie's instincts on this kind of thing. If he doesn't think we can trust him, then I won't."

There was a long, seething sigh from Ayle as she shook her head. "Send me whatever report you have on him then."

I nodded as I made another turn in my walk, letting my legs carry me back towards my chair. "Apart from that, the only other worrying aspect is that Zaen has a propaganda team going all-out to try and rile up the populace against us. His granddaughters are leading it, trying to make it seem like we're going to turn the place into Omega's lowers."

"Is he getting any traction with it?"

"It's... not helping." Thul spoke up, his head shaking tiredly. "The populace of this city know better, but many of the other communities have started taking up arms when raiding missions go near them. They are not a real threat to us or the front line units, but... casualties only help his message."

"By the Pillars..." Ayle groaned, taking a fortifying sip from her drink. "Do you have any good news about this planet?"

"Jarrick?" I prompted him as I sat down. "That's your cue."

The kid swallowed and stood up. "I've been c-compiling..." he paused, swallowed again, and visibly straightened his back. "I've been compiling all of the information we have on Krom's movements ma'am. He's been very active in the fighting from the start, and more so since most of the mercenary teams here to hunt him were either killed or left the planet."

Reaching down, he tapped a few buttons built into the table, and a tiny holo-globe appeared above its center. "Before we arrived, we have confirmation that he killed two Colonels, three Majors, and eliminated five mercenary teams. He is still the most likely culprit behind the decryption day attacks that saw most of the mercenary teams on planet being eliminated, but since then his behavior has changed."

A few more commands saw the globe split into a pair of maps, one of each of the planet's major continents. Red dots began to appear sporadically across both, with blue and orange lines snapping into place to show the current lines of battle. "Before his actions were entirely in the support of ongoing battles, disrupting our side's commanders to make their units vulnerable during a fight. But since we shifted to raiding operations, these red dots are where we can confirm he's been to."

Everyone leaned forwards slightly, and I found myself nodding slowly. "Can you overlay the targets raided just by us and the other merc teams?"

"I already have it ready sir." And he did, with a single flick adding blue circles. "While we've been hunting him, he's apparently been hunting us."

Trena growled around her smoldering pipe. "None of the other teams have said shit, have they?"

"No." I shook my head. "The Blade Runners got taken out a week ago but I thought that was to a pair of berserkers."

"Two berserkers, plus Krom and his partner." Jarrick corrected me. "His other stops have all been to engage raids launched only by army forces. His response time is... unusually fast, especially given the typical raid orders in regards to the time that can be spent on the ground."

Shyeel let out a little growling noise, her blue fingers tightening into fists. "Is he already there when the raids start, or does he show up after they begin?"

"After, ma'am." The kid winced a little. "The other analysts agree that he must have an insider feeding him the raid locations, but only doing so after our shuttles have departed. They've got the EW team hunting through communications records but no one's spotted anything yet."

I grunted quietly. "Who knows?"

"The Intelligence team, the EW team, and General Mascal. He ordered it kept quiet until the insider is found." His tanning face grew a little pale. "Once they are discovered he said you and the other mercenary leaders can... interrogate him."

Torture him until he broke, he meant. Though in all honestly we'd probably just ask Mirala to break his mind open, then put a bullet or ten into him if she left him breathing afterwords. "Is there any kind of pattern? Forces he usually uses?"

"The only pattern is his counter-efforts." Jarrick shrugged a little. "Given that there's usually a dozen or more raids that go out at one time, I think he gets all of their locations and has to guess which one a team might be at sir."

I frowned, then cursed quietly as I shook my head. Trena did the same thing a few breaths later. "He'd see through that plan ape."

"I know." I took a pull from my drink, the rum burning my throat. "Athame's ass.. maybe a slow draw down?"

Scales shrugged a shoulder. "You think Mascal would agree?"

I scowled at her. Of course he wouldn't. Our bounty was just a minor part of his war, as far as he was concerned.

"What in the darkest deeps are ya talkin' about?" Callada glanced between us, her eyes narrowed in annoyance. "Ya know I hate it when ya have yer half-conversations."

"I believe they were contemplating lowering the amount of raids sent out at one time." Shyeel spoke, her tone amused. "To guarantee that Krom picked the one we were on. Since that would be an obvious trap, we'd have to convince the General to lower the number of raids over time to shroud our intentions."

"We'd also risk one of the other merc teams getting him." Idas scratched her chin with a single talon. "Not an ideal solution."

"How many other teams remain?" Ayle spoke up, her upper eyes flicking in my direction.

"The Night Sisters, the Shearing Wind, and Verse Ninety-Seven." I shook my head. "All are hardcore commando teams, I'd give them better than even odds of getting him even with a pair of berserkers."

She blinked both sets of eyes. "Did the... Blade Runners not think the same thing?"

"The Runners were more concerned with the wealth he would bring them than the intelligence of hunting him." Thul rumbled. "They should have departed with the others."

"Ah." Ayle nodded once. "Still, it would be a twenty-five percent chance, yes? Is there a better option?"

My lips pursed a little. "No... not beyond waiting the campaign out and trying to get him while he's in Zaen's palace."

Everyone but Ayle winced at that. We'd looked over the plans for the place and... shit. I already pitied whoever was going to have to try and storm that complex. "No. I'll ask Mascal, maybe we can work it into a general draw-down when we run low on targets. Might be a month or two but I can get the other team leaders to pressure him."

"I can speak with him on it." Our Commander gave me a little glance. "Now that I'm here I should likely be the one interacting with him."

"Good." I bowed my head in thanks. "One less thing for me to do."

"Speaking of," We all glanced at Idas. "If I remember correctly, I believe you said she would be resuming command when she returned. Though I offer no offense, you... seem to have a long trek ahead of you in terms of recovering."

Ayle grimaced, but nodded. "I would wish to handle the lighter duties for now, thought it pains me to admit that. Cieran will command the unit in the field, I will simply take over negotiations with our clients, directing Jarrick's efforts, and that sort of thing. Once I have well enough to fight I will resume full command again."

The Turian woman glanced at me, "And you are all right with that?"

I snorted and shook my head. "I'm the one who wanted her in charge in the first place, why wouldn't I be?"

Thul chuckled when her mandibles simply twitched a few times. "Cieran may have adopted many aspects of my people's culture, but the notion of holding onto power is not one of them. I have come to realize that he genuinely dislikes being in leadership postions."

"I had noticed his discomfort in the role, but..." She tilted her head a little. "You are a very odd being, Cieran Kean. I can't claim that I would have stepped aside so easily if it had been me."

"At least you're honest about it." I gave her a polite bow of my head. "Well, we've got a plan for Krom now, that leaves one major thing remaining. Amy? You're up."

Amy Chang nodded from where she'd been sitting quietly next to Illyan, all but invisible next to the massive Asari. We'd finally gotten her something in our unit's colors, Nynsi having come through with a very light suit of armor for her. She was still a little awkward in it, but she'd admitted that the environmental systems were beyond heavenly. "Right. Jarrick? Could you shift the image to the one I sent you?"

He nodded, and soon enough the maps had been replaced with a series of graphs and tables.

"It took me a while to get any kind of leads, but once I had them things got moving. The graph on the right is something Miss Chi helped me put together. The lower lines is the average spending for troops in the 121st's first company over their two months on planet." I nodded slowly. The First was the elite company in the regiment, and the highest paid as a result. "She hacked their transaction accounts to get the exact data. The second, higher bar is the spending over the same period of time by the 91st regiment's fourth company."

The fingers on my left hand twitched violently before I curled them into a fist. "Athame's... is that...?"

Amy nodded soberly. "The fourth is their reserves and logistics unit. The lowest paid by salary."

And they were spending more money than the 121st's _elite._ Or at least, they had for a while. Initially their bar was far lower, but then jumped up about a week after they'd landed, and stayed up for over a month before slowly declining again. They must have gotten a massive influx of cash around that time, and had promptly begun spending it.

On my left, Ayle let out a low, long growl. "Continue."

"Miss Chi was able to convince several of the EW team to assist her in breaking upon the 91st's communications logs without their own people noticing."

I gave Voya a sharp glance, to which she shrugged. "Two of my people only Cie, they'll keep their mouths closed."

The former reporter waited for a moment, but when I merely nodded in grudging approval she continued. "We.. were able to locate records of an auction that occurred one week after their landing, by message board. The Captain in charge of the fourth company was offering an 'exotic' human female with unparallelled biotic potential to three separate buyers. All three were using aliases, but we worked out two of them."

Voya grunted quietly. "An asshole on Omega, one of Aria's traders. The other was a Circle rep."

My lips twisted at the mention of that particular group. "The third?"

"The alias was 'Brooks', but we don't know..." She trailed off when my mouth shifted into a snarl. "Um... you know them?"

"Cerberus." I spat the word. "Who won?"

"The Circle." She swallowed, "They had a private conversation after the other two were let go. They plan to take her in and resell her to the Brooks person at an up-charge, with the Captain getting a bit of the cut."

"When?" Shyeel leaned forwards, her scarred face as twisted as mine. "When is it happening?"

"They have her on ice, currently en route." Voya spoke up, her voice cutting into the tensions. "And it's two weeks from now, we only decoded that conversation this morning. We have to get someone there."

"To Carastes?" Thul shook his head. "I don't know if T'Ravt could get us there, not in that time frame."

"We don't have a choice." Shyeel all but snarled, rising to her feet. "She's a bitch but she's one of _us._ T'Ravt gives us a frigate and we leave _now_. Some of us stay behind and send the fuckers who did this to meet Athame in person."

"I understand," The former priest shifted his posture to one of placation, "But time is not on our side, and the Lady Warlord's ships are not racing vessels."

She scowled furiously at him. "What's your plan then?

"Cieran." He turned and bowed his head low and to the left. "Carastes is far closer to the Citadel than to us, is it not?"

I blinked, my mental ship getting completely lost in a storm for several moments before realization dawned. "Thul, _no._ I know where you're going and-"

"Do you know anyone else who would go there, who can be trusted to do the right thing?" He interrupted me smoothly. "Who loathes that place enough to see the Circle punished?"

Everyone else turned to look at me, while Ayle merely blinked both eyes in confusion. "Cie?"

Athame's fucking ass. I did _not_ want to have to call that woman, much less owe her a favor like this. "Fine, I'll call the bitch and see if she wants us to owe her a favor."

"Who?" Ayle demanded.

"Spectre Kaya Shepard." Thul rumbled placidly. "She gave Cieran a way to contact her, so that she could buy information from him should she need to."

Our Commander gave me a dark, irritated look. "You failed to mention that."

"Because I wasn't planning on telling her anything." I muttered before pushing myself back to my feet. "I'll go use the secure link, hopefully she's close enough to actually do this. Let me know what the plan is to kill the fuckers here."

Ayle was still annoyed, but she dipped her head in permission and I headed for the door. "I'll need a driver."

"I'll do it, I won't be much use in... the rest of this." Amy Chang quickly rose and moved to follow me. "I mean, if I may?"

When no one protested, the pair of us slipped out, closing the door on an already rising argument about whether or not we needed T'Ravt's permission to kill an entire company worth of troops. Which we would, as much as Shyeel was shouting that we didn't. Them abducting and selling people for profit likely wasn't anything new, or even unknown to her or to Mascal. Most of her troops likely conducted such activities on the side to supplement their income, though drugs were likely more common than slavery. They turned a higher profit and took less effort.

But this time... they'd done it to one of _us._ A mercenary unit _personally_ hired by the Lady Warlord. That they were going to die wasn't a serious question. Who was going to kill them, and how T'Ravt would allow it to happen, were the more germane questions.

Neither Amy or I said anything as we exited the bar, nor when we got into the aircar. She was visibly lost behind her eyes, her body operating entirely on auto-pilot.

"You don't have to be involved." I spoke once we were airborne. "Not in the rest of this."

"The... part where you kill them all, you mean?"

"Yeah." My left shoulder rolled as my head dipped in a shrug. "It's probably going to be messy, not something you need to see."

She bit her lip as the car piloted itself towards headquarters. "There was... a list of things they bought, before they sold her. Like the cryo unit. Most of the company must have pooled their wages to afford it. But there was also... there was an encrypted file with a lot of drugs on it. The kind used to keep slaves... _docile_."

I let my eyes close halfway as I breathed. "That part went more or less assumed."

"It shouldn't." Her voice grew quiet. "Not even in the Terminus."

"No." My own shifted into something like a growl. "It shouldn't. That's why we're going to kill them all, probably in horrific ways."

"Does... god, I _want_ you to." She shook her head. "I never thought I'd want to actually see people dead, and it makes me sick, but part of me _wants_ to watch you kill them all for what they did to your friend."

Friend was a strong word, in the case of Jack, but I knew what she meant. "Hintertown didn't have this kind of problem?"

"Not... not quite like this. There is, was I guess, a volunteer militia group. They policed things, kept the worst out. Zaen's wife encouraged it, funded them. She had a lot of industry here to support her warships." Amy bowed her head a little. "We got to live in something like civilization, all because educated people are better at making circuit boards and missiles."

"Life in the Terminus." I exhaled as the car began to descend, the short flight nearly over. "You're staying away from the rest of this. You don't need to see it."

She glanced at me. "Why? Why protect me?"

The fingers on my left hand started shaking again, and I idly tightened that hand into a fist to make it less obvious. "Because you don't need to become what we are. Wanting revenge or justice or whatever you want to call it, that's fine. Probably natural. But you don't need to see what we're going to do to those people. That kind of thing.. changes you."

"Like it changed you?" She asked quietly, the car settling onto the open ground next to our prefab. Glitch, in its eight feet of battered glory, stood guard beside the door, its head swinging our way as we landed.

"Something like that." I replied equally softly, glancing down at my twitching fist, trying to remember a time when the occasional nightmare was the worst thing I had to deal with. "Come on, I have a call to make."

We exited the car, entering the sweltering heat with a wince on her part and a muttered curse on mine. Bypassing the sentry mech, which for once didn't ask permission to shoot Chang, I politely opened the door for her and let her enter ahead of me. After that she headed over to the kitchenette, probably to grab water, while I let my feet carry me to the room Voya and I were sharing.

Locking the door behind me, I glowered at my console for a long minute before sighing and reluctantly seating myself in front of it. It didn't take long to bring up the communications page from there, and I sighed as a Turian woman's face appeared on the screen. " _This is the Dark Tide CiC, we recognize you're code Reyja'krem. You're requesting a secure link?"_

"Yes." I grimaced at the words I was about to say. "To the entered address."

Her eyes flicked down, and her mandibles splayed wide in shock. " _This... is a Citadel account."_

"Yes. Is that a problem?"

Yellow eyes blinked. " _It's.. unusual. The Warlord is in a high-level meeting, so I'll need the Captain's permission to route us to the Eclipse server there, I believe they're the only group with an appropriate link."_

I had assumed as much, but I didn't really care if Sederis got a recording of this call. She'd understand. "I'll hold."

Another nod, then the screen flicked black as she turned away. It didn't her long, maybe a minute, then the image flickered to inform me that it was currently establishing a secure link. Then it changed again, showing me a logo that nearly made me flinch as it waited for the person I was trying to call to answer or not.

" _Why the hell are you calling me?"_ Commander Kaya Shepard's exhausted face appeared as the loading image faded. It must have been in the middle of the night-shift, because her short hair was entirely a mess, and the room was dark besides the glow of the omni-tool she was using to accept the call. " _Is Aria about to declare war on us or something?"_

"No." Swallowing my pride a bit, I exhaled heavily. "I need a favor. A big one."

Dark blue eyes blinked as she visibly forced herself to focus. " _Shit. You'd only ask me if you thought I'd actually do it, or if you're desperate. Which is it?"_

"Both." I admitted. "How quickly can you get to Carastes?"

She stared at the camera in silence for a breath. " _Why?"_

"I need you to burn it to the ground, kill everyone there, and rescue one of our people in the process."

More blinking, then an exhausted curse as she hauled herself up. The glow behind her revealed the interior of the SR-1's commander's quarters as her position shifted, and she shook her head a bit as she sat on her bunk. " _Start at the beginning."_

I did so, describing how we'd lost Jack in short, efficient sentences. What she'd looked like, acted like, how to recognize her. How we'd never been sure if she'd actually died, and our investigations up until that point. What we'd discovered over the last few weeks, and this morning in particular. And who was involved.

" _You're sure this Brooks is a Cerberus agent?"_

"Reasonably. I know that's one of her aliases. Dark skin, dark hair, youngish."

Shepard had transitioned to her desk, flicking her eyes between me and whatever she was looking up. " _You know a woman who goes by Hope Lilium?"_

I grunted as an implanted memory rose of Miranda calling her that. "That's her."

Her lips curled a little, throwing the scar across her face into sharp relief. " _So. You want me to go to a known slaver den, destroy it, and rescue a woman who has been abducted, raped, frozen, and then sold to a group of known terrorists."_

"Yeah, pretty much."

" _That's why I'm beginning to hate you, Kean. You fucking knew I wouldn't leave this alone."_

I winced a little. "Yes, I'm manipulating you. Like I said, I'd go there and kill these fuckers myself, thaw out Jacqueline, and let her blow everything to shit, but we don't have the speed to get there before she's carted off to some Cerberus base. If I had a fucking choice..."

" _If you had a fucking choice... that should be a slogan for the fucking Terminus."_ The Spectre growled. " _I'm assuming you don't have another serious option? What's the Eclipse doing?"_

It was a rather transparent demand to know what the group was doing, but if she did this... shit, I was going to be her informant for free for months.

"Fighting near the Perseus Veil. That Geth fleet you ran off fucked up a lot of the campaign out there, Sederis is stopping Zaen and a bunch of independents from trying to get at the Stormwall Yards while die Waffe protects his colonies." I sighed. "Even if Sederis or T'Ravt could get forces there, I don't trust either of them. My only other option is Tela Vasir. We've met once, though I don't know if she remembers it. I'd have to pay her a fortune but she might be convinced to go."

" _She does, and it would."_ Shepard stared at me for a long few breaths. " _You have no idea how much you owe me for this Kean. The warlords will stay out of this?"_

"T'Ravt and Sederis will." I tried not to sag in relief at hearing her agree, regardless of the price. Jack might have been... well, Jack, and things might be getting severely off the 'canon' map in my head, but letting her fall back into Cerberus's hands... no. Not a fucking chance. "Aria would probably sleep with you for wiping out her competition."

" _You sure about T'Ravt? The only reason Carastes is still standing is because of how close it is to Xentha."_

"Her people are responsible for this." My voice lowered. "They abducted and sold a mercenary in her personal employ. If she has a problem she's a hypocrite beyond anything I've seen, and I would be glad to shoot her."

Shepard blinked. " _You'd... shoot a Warlord?"_

"For violating her word? For letting one of my people be drugged, abused, sold like livestock?" I needed a long breath. "Shooting her would likely be more merciful than what I would want to do to her. But it won't come to that, T'Ravt's word is her _word_. The loss of face from this is going to make her go ballistic enough that she'd probably flatten the place on principle to try and get _some_ respect back from the smaller merc units."

The Spectre wasn't stupid, she grunted after a moment of thought. " _How many do you think will leave her employment?"_

"The good ones won't break their contracts, but they'll bleed her for every credit before re-signing. The less reputable groups... she'll lose a few, and anyone negotiating with her people right now will think twice without more payment being offered." In other words her finances would become a mess, especially considering that it was _us_ who'd had a member snatched. We might not have been a large group, but our relationship with both her and Sederis was becoming extremely well known in the circles we moved in. If T'Ravts's troops had enough of a quad to abduct one of us, they'd do it to anyone. "Any other questions?"

" _Plenty. And you're going to answer them all."_ I winced, but nodded slightly. " _I know more than a few Corsairs I can conscript into this, they've wanted that place gone for a long time. Where do you want this Jacqueline dropped off?"_

"Wherever she wants. She's probably going to need a lot of medical attention, I can reimburse any costs for that. Once your doctors say she's good..." I rolled a shoulder tiredly. "Let her tell you what she wants."

" _...dammit. Every time I start to seriously loathe you, you do something to make me think of you as a person."_ The head on my screen shook slightly. " _You owe me unfiltered information for the next Citadel year. If you don't know the answer to whatever I'm asking, I want to be pointed to someone who does."_

"Agreed." Licking my lips, I steeled myself and swallowed, "Thank-"

" _Don't say it."_ She actually shuddered. " _That's not a conversation we need. I still don't like you."_

I snorted quietly, but nodded. "Send a priority message when it's done, if you could."

" _I will. Expect to be sending your first payments soon."_ Reaching out, she cut the line off at that.

So... now I was in Shepard's debt, and would probably have to tell her more than a few things that could make my life seriously awkward. Shit.

Shutting my console off with an annoyed flick, I rose and shuffled back out to the living room. There was already a glass of pale blue liquid on a table beside Amy, and she pushed it an inch in my direction when she saw me.

I tried not to groan lustfully, grabbing the ice cold Moonrise as I collapsed into the chair across from her. "You are so hot right now."

She flushed a little as I took a long gulp. "I thought you might need it, from what Illyan was telling me, the Spectre doesn't like you much."

"Understatement." I sighed. "I'm mercenary scum and an asshole according to her. The later is true, at least." My companion stifled a grin at that. "Message everyone and tell them Shepard is on it, we'll know in a few weeks how it went. She's probably going to go scorched earth on the place."

Amy Chang's grin faded as she blinked, her omni-tool lighting up. "She.. is?"

"She's going to call in the Corsairs." Her mouth opened in an 'oh' shape. "Which means I... or Ayle, now that she's here, needs to call T'Ravt. Probably should let her handle it, good for her pride to be useful."

"If you think so. You definitely seem to know Batarians." She murmured as she typed out the message. The floating screen near her wrist flickered once, then again as someone responded. "Miss ul Massa already has a meeting setup, a shuttle is coming down from the _Dark Tide_."

"Guess we should be thankful she hasn't left orbit yet." I muttered, taking another long sip from my drink. "Is it picking her up right from the bar?"

"Apparently." She frowned at that, staring at the message. "She's... on that good of terms with the Warlord?"

"Yeah. Her and T'Ravt have some kind of history that they've never gone into, and my life is complicated enough without knowing the details." I shrugged again. "From the way you're fingering your omni-tool, and leaving it on, I'm guessing you want another story."

She blinked, then glanced at her fingers before blushing a little bit again. "If you don't mind? It might be better to talk about rather than... everything else"

I shook my head and sighed. "I don't, and probably. Where were we?"

"You and Matriarch Shaaryak were heading back to your apartment after rescuing the slaves at the warehouse." She supplied at once.

"Right." Leaning back in my chair, I contemplated my words, and then began remembering.

* * *

**Silent Witness**

_Date: 06-10-2183_

_Location: Hintertown, Redcliffe, Feralda System, Northern Terminus_

* * *

There was screaming... and death... and fear... the panicked shrieking of animals caught in a trap that they couldn't escape. Arms and legs pounding on sealed doors, desperate to escape the predators coming for them. Blood of every color mixed upon the floor, the metallic tang of it mixing with the smells of disemboweled creatures.

My ancestors must have been smiling upon me, because it was _glorious._

My current prey flinched away from me as I sliced half the fingers of his right hand away, all four eyes widening enough that I could see the white around his wide black pupils. His bellow had barely begun before I took a half step left and lashed upwards with my other blade, taking the lower orbs. The shout of pain became a high pitched shriek of pure, animistic terror as he fell to the ground, trying to protect the remaining gateways to his soul.

I let him fall, hopping back just in time to avoid a frantic slash from a Turian, her talons missing my face by a few millimeters.

Turians weren't as fun to kill. Too many plates, and the talons made it annoying to in-fight with them. Twisting myself around, I gave her a vicious kick to the side. She tried to duck her arm to block the strike, but was a few breaths too slow. My shin slammed into her leathery skin and sent her staggering away from me.

She had enough time to stumble, tried to gather herself to pounce again, and then Cieran took the top of her head off with a single lazy shot from his hand-cannon.

I gave him a wicked grin through my mask, a wave of heat rolling out from my lower body, then whirled my head around to find my next victim. I had to move quickly, we were starting to run out.

A fat human male, his long mane matted, was trying to scramble away from where Shyeel was calmly executing his friends, rushing towards a different side door as if it would open for him. Darting after him, I leaped onto one of the mess hall's long tables, darting along it rather than risk falling on the floor.

The gunshots and shouting covered my approach, he never even turned as I darted past him, my left hand casually lowering to brush a blade along the side of his face. Red blood spurted out, adding to the liquid already all over my legs, and his mouth opened in a scream I could barely hear. His right arm lashed out in a reflexive gesture, a move that made my lips curl in a sneer.

Hopping over the wild strike with contemptuous ease, I hit the ground in a roll right in front of him and spun around with both of my blades up. Even if he could have stopped I don't think he would have, instead relying on his bulk to simply trample me.

I danced backwards, lashing out in quick motions with each knife to rip the muscles free from beneath his flabby skin on both of his arms. His pink mouth opened in a squealing scream, beady eyes staring at shock at the red strands now hanging useless out of himself. My heart thundered as I moved in, something like a giggle coming out as I shifted targets to his chest.

He died messily, bleating and sobbing as he bled out beneath me.

Good. It was a good start, but just a start. More. There had to be more.

My legs had barely begun to move when a hand slammed down on my shoulder, and a quiet voice spoke in harshly accented Thessian. "Voya. Enough."

I blinked, turning to stare at Cieran's helmet, the black visor lowered to look right back at me. "There's still-"

"Enough." He repeated, not raising his voice in the slightest. "It's done."

I didn't want it to be over. I wanted to keep going, to keep feeling the rush, the wild freedom, where no one could hold me down again. To unleash all the pain I'd suffered onto the creatures that... they deserved...

I shuddered, lowering my head and sagging against my friend, my breathing accelerating as I tried to push the thoughts aside. His hand slid around my shoulders, holding me against his armored body as he waited for me to regain what control I had. It took a while... it always did. To push the... _feral_ out of my living soul, to leash back into the hidden valley where it belonged.

"Calm?" Cie asked softly, more than a few minutes later.

"Yes." I murmured quietly, focusing on my breathing. "Are they all dead?"

There was an almost quiet _crack_ of a light pistol. "Ayle just executed the Captain, so yes."

"Good." My fingers tightened on his armor for a brief moment, then I stepped back as he let me go. "Good."

Turning away from him, I let my gaze turn to explore the mess hall turned butcher's shop. Thirty seven bodies, all told, littered the floors in various stages of death. Everyone of them someone who T'Ravt's own investigations had revealed to have had direct involvement in abducting Jacqueline, in abusing her, in selling her.

In a way they were lucky. They'd been granted death, hadn't even been forced to sit around and think about it. Sixty-five of their companions were in chains now, for taking cuts of the sale to keep their mouths shut. They were being loaded onto a transport, being sent to Omega to be sold as slaves themselves. Their lives would be misery, pain, and despair from this point on.

Included amongst the latter group was the 91st's Colonel, and nearly the entire senior staff. What was left wasn't enough to run a full unit, and the regiment itself had been disbanded as a result. Its remaining members had been scattered to replace combat losses in more reliable formations, breaking them apart to contain whatever rot had infected them worse than even the normal darkness of the Terminus.

"You went easy on them." I kept my voice low, examining the bodies in greater detail. Most had simply been shot, but here and there were the burns of biotic warpfire, or the circular pattern to the dead to show they'd been in twisting around a singularity when they'd died. "Callada and Shyeel made them suffer."

"As did you." He shrugged a shoulder, turning to move towards a door. I followed reflexively, leaving the others behind. Not everyone had come with for this one, just the Reyja'krem plus me. Everyone already stained, in other words. We weren't the only ones present, T'Ravt's personal Turian bodyguards were scattered around Ayle, having been the ones to escort the condemned to us. They hadn't opened fire beyond protecting the Batarian against the initial panicked rush when our prey had realized what was happening, leaving it to us to deal out the Lady Warlord's justice.

"I still believe my solution was more practical." Cieran murmured as he undid the code that had sealed the door, stepping over a human woman missing her jaw. One of mine. "Turning the unit into a penal legion and throwing them at the Krogan until they all died would have at least gotten some use of them."

"It wouldn't have been as fun though." I replied, fighting down the memory of the rush of it. Keelah, I needed a shower, with ice. The shock would help knock me out of this. "Nor as poignant of a lesson."

"The latter at least is true."

I licked my lips to fight off a grimace. "You didn't like doing it."

It was a statement, not a question, but he responded anyway. "You know me well enough o know that I didn't. Had to be done, of course, and I feel... satisfied that those things are dead."

Satisfied? I shook my head a little. That was a word for it, I supposed. "Will Ayle care that we left?"

"Probably, but I need to a drink."

"And you're used to being in charge, not having to care about someone's orders?"

Event with the helmet I could tell he was scowling at me. "Voya."

"Yes?"

He shook his head and sighed, kicking up sand and dust from the ground as we walked. Shockingly everyone was giving us a wide berth, their own eyes or helmets locked onto me more than him. Probably because I was covered in blood. None of them tried to approach, not after Mascal's announcement of what the 91st had done, but they still stared.

We didn't say anything the rest of the way to our place, a silence that suited the both of us I think. The mech on sentry duty, its armor freshly repaired from last week's mission, boomed out a greeting as its masters approached. Cieran muttered a response, making sure it hadn't killed anyone while we'd been gone, and then cut in front of me to open the door before I could.

I narrowed my eyes in annoyance at that, a sign he ignored entirely. Sniffing, I turned my mask up at him and strode past him. There were a few gasps and mutters from the people we'd left behind at my appearance, which was expected. Ignoring them, I headed for the room I shared with Cie and tapped out our pass-code before shoving the door open.

Footsteps followed me, much heavier than Cieran's, and he'd veered off to the kitchen as soon as we'd entered. Turning just a few steps into the room, I glared at the huge Asari framed in the doorway behind me. "Illyan."

"Voya." The larger Asari glanced back at the way she came, "Mind if I come in?"

I did, but her hands were moving in quick gestures. It was a bit halting, but she managed to sign the letters C-I-E. Growling, I could only nod jerkily. "Fine."

While she came in after me, I turned around again and headed to the bathroom. I'd need to wash down my armor before I got out of it, cleaning all the blood and offal and other crap I'd gotten onto me off unless I wanted a reaction.

"Room is sound proofed right?" Illyan called quietly as I started up the water.

"If they weren't we'd hear you and that little bitch screaming every night." I called over the sound of it.

There was a snicker. "True."

Since the temperature didn't matter, I simply climbed in and watched as the multi-colored streams began to run down my armored suit. "What about him?"

Motion in the doorway heralded that she'd followed, her head shaking slowly as she watched. "You used your knives, didn't you?"

Turning, I glared at her through my mask. I _hated_ that pitying tone, it made me want to cut her damned crest off. "How many times have I told you not to analyze me? I don't need a big sister or a shoulder to cry on or whatever you think I need to 'heal'."

Blue lips twisted. "You can say that all you want, but you hate being like this. If the boss wasn't around-"

"I'd be dead." I finished for her, completely ignoring her first statement. "I'm aware of how much I owe him, you don't need to _constantly_ remind me. Can we fucking get to the point?"

Illyan stared at me for several moment. "Did he enjoy it?"

"Of course he didn't." I muttered, turning away to grab a cloth to help get crap out from between the plates. "He said it was satisfying afterwords, but during... I'd have called him bored. He didn't make them suffer. Just shot them."

She was silent for a few moments. "I'm not sure if bored is better or worse than enjoying it. At least an emotional reaction is a _reaction._ He was killing people."

"Who _deserved_ it." I growled, wiping down a shin plane as rapidly as I could. "And he looked bored in comparison to everyone else, he wasn't a fucking statue."

"All right, all right. Athame's ass you don't need to explode on me." The larger woman shifted position, moving to stand next to the open shower. "You still mad at me?"

"I'm _always_ mad at you."

There was a slight grin. "Yeah, but you know what I mean."

I grunted quietly, turning around to shut the water off. "Of course I am. You didn't need to tell that little bitch about his... moment."

"I didn't think she'd go so far as to run out here to join us." She defended herself. "Just... shit, maybe talk to him. The two of them were inseparable since we met on Illium, they've always had that partial conversation crap down. It seemed right for her to know. It's not as if we were doing a great job of keeping him on an even keel."

My lips twisted a little as I reached up to grab my mask, yanking the stupid thing off. "Maybe. But it's not like that bitch is doing much to help either."

Illyan rolled her eyes. "She is, but it figures you wouldn't admit it. He talks with her more than he does with us these days."

"I thought that was that human woman." I muttered, stepping out of the shower as she got out of my way. Tossing my mask onto the sink, I started working at the rest of my headgear. "She's constantly chasing him for stories."

"Him, Thul, Shyeel, Me, You... she wants to know everyone." Her lips curled a little. "Though she might want to know the boss a little more than the rest of us."

"What are you...oh." I scoffed as I got the rest of it off, the strain on my scalp relaxing as my short mane was freed. "Is that why you stopped flirting with him? See if he'd go for his own species?"

"Sort of."

The gloves came off next, letting my pull a leg up, planting it on the sink as I started pulling at the straps and buckles that kept everyting on. I'd gotten one boot before I realized that she was still staring at me, as if waiting for some kind of response. "What?"

"You..." Ilyan peered at me. "Don't care?"

I blinked. "About what?"

"If he has sex with Chang or not."

"Why _would_ I?"

She blinked. "Because you have a crush on him, obviously."

My mouth opened as I stared at her. "I... you think I _what_? Keelah, _why_ would you think that? He's my friend but he's _not_ attractive in the slightest."

"If he's not attractive, why do I always see you staring at his fur?"

"I do..." Her smirk broadened and I amended myself with a growl. "He has _one_ attractive attribute. And it's hair, not fur, you should know that by now."

"Fur annoys you." She replied promptly.

I twitched. "Just because I like his mane of hair doesn't mean I _like_ him."

"Then why did you have him cut your fur for you?" Her head cocked to one side, her grin growing to Vorcha levels. "That's a big deal to your people, isn't it?"

"Because I trust him with scissors more than you." I growled. "It didn't mean anything. I'm not attracted to humans, or him. If I was I would have done something when he slept with Ayle."

"Maybe you just didn't realize it then."

"Maybe you're going to wake up with your crest on fire."

"Cieran would cut the rest of your fur off." She pointed out.

He would. I twitched a little. "Permanent paint then. Neon green streaks across your forehead. Not even the little bitch would sleep with you without cackling."

Illyan snorted. "How do you feel about red fur?"

"I'm armed." I replied grimly.

Her body briefly glowed dark blue, the stink of ozone making my nose wrinkle. "Try it bitch."

I glowered at her, considered leaving her a cut across her nose just to make a point, then elected not to. "Get out so I can shower."

"You don't want me to join you?" When I let out a rumbling growl and showed her my canines, she snorted and held her hands up before backing to the door. "Fine fine, sorry. I know you're saving yourself for the boss."

She barely got out of the bathroom, yanking the door around before a knife ricocheted off the metal where her ass had just been.

* * *

_**Transmission from SSV Queen Anne's Revenge CL-103 to SSV Normandy SR-1** _

_C.O. QAR: Kaya! How the hell did you pull this off?_

_C.O. SR1: Long story involving someone I hate, but right now we both want this place burned to the ground. We can talk about it over drinks later Ted._

_C.O. QAR: Works for me. Who's in that Asari ship?_

_C.O. SR1: Tela Vasir, Spectre. Someone in the Circle pissed her off a few decades ago, when she heard about this op she figured she'd come with, get some payback._

_C.O. QAR: You trust her?_

_C.O. SR1: She's a Spectre._

_C.O. QAR: So are you._

_C.O. SR1: Ted, not right now alright? After._

_C.O. QAR: Right, sorry Kaya. Rules of engagement?_

_C.O. SR1: Kill everyone that's not a slave, my team will focus on the VIP. You see a tattooed girl with some insane biotics call me, otherwise focus on the general populace. Be on the lookout for Cerberus, they might be involved on the planet._

_C.O. QAR: Those fuckers... I'll spread the word. My squadron will keep the ships at bay in orbit, I won't be on the ground with our troops. In better news, I've got an old friend on board. He brought the entire brute squad from Palaven with him too, ambassador told them to get off that radioactive rock and stretch their legs._

_C.O. SR1: John is here!? Good god, it's been years. We'll definitely need to take some time on the Citadel after this run, I'll buy._

_C.O. QAR: Good, because we're both broke as shit. See you at the target._

_C.O. SR1: See you there Teddy._

* * *

_**Next up is Operation: Strike and Fade** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So.. they found Jack, not in a good place either. But at least Shepard is on her way, we'll see how that particular mission goes in the next chapter. Things are starting to get a bit more brutal on Redcliffe, and will get far worse before they get better. Voya is still Voya, and we get a little glimpse into her and Illyan's odd relationship.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	31. Operation: Strike and Fade I

I don't own the Mass Effect, nor any ideas borrowed from Logical Premise with permission.

* * *

**Operation: Strike and Fade**

_Date: 06-17-2183_

_Location: The Dale Flatlands, Redcliffe, Feralda System, Northern Terminus_

* * *

" _Jack is going to make it."_ Shepard's pained voice echoed in my helmet, " _She won't be leaving the ICU for a month, a Cerberus Operative all but disemboweled her, but she'll live."_

I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding, relief nearly making me sag. Since I was being shot at, I kept my back straight, my hand-cannon bucking in both hands as I blew a hole in a human pirate. He went down without a scream, dead as the heavy shot tore into his chest. "Thank the goddess. How bad was it?"

" _Bad._ " Though she didn't say 'you fucking idiot', her tone implied it perfectly enough. " _No problems with the Circle, but Cerberus was there in force. I'm reconsidering just how much you owe me."_

"That's nice." I muttered, ducking back into cover and jerking a hand for Illyan to take my place. The big Asari's helmet nodded, her body gliding past me. Once in place, she glanced around around the side of the building, and then shot off a short burst from her assault rifle. We were in some small town in the middle of the southern continental plain. I didn't even know the name of it, nor did I honestly care all that much. It had a small grenade factory that we needed to blow up, that was all that really mattered. An earlier raid had apparently fucked up a production line, but they hadn't been able to bring it down.

We'd been dropped off in the middle of a nearby parking lot, and moved to secure the place as quickly as we could. My team had moved to the main intersection out front, securing it even as a group of local pirates acting as militia had started to run over to see what was going on. While we played tag around a bunch of bombed-out tenements, and Trena and her team did the same thing on the other side of the factory, Thul had led his team inside to handle the actual demolition.

Shepard had, naturally, chosen while we were in the middle of a bloody firefight to call me. If Jack's life hadn't been important I would have told her to try again later, especially since my power armor was back in Hintertown waiting for spare parts to show up. She hadn't seemed surprised to hear gunfire in the background, and had patiently waited the few times I'd had to stop talking to deal with a problem. Not that there had been all that many, if anything I was starting to get paranoid because this raid was going _too_ well.

"I did tell you they were involved." I reminded her irritably.

" _You did."_ She muttered. " _She said she wants to both kill you for not finding her, and fuck you senseless for sending us to get her. Not sure in which order."_

Something exploded a few blocks away. I glanced in that direction, listening intently, then relaxed minutely. Just a car detonating, not the precursor to artillery. "That sounds like her. She say what she wanted to do?"

" _No, but even when she gets out she won't be up for fighting for a few more months. I gave her that account number you sent me, the one with her backpay in it."_ There was a long pause. " _T'Ravt really paid for that?"_

"She has her honor." I exhaled. "Give me a second. Thul, I need a sitrep for team two! We're still keeping the reinforcements away but it's getting fucking old!"

" _We've breached the front door."_ Thul promptly replied, " _And have secured the lobby. Callada and Dietrich are setting the charges on the load bearing columns as we speak."_

"Time?"

" _Five minutes."_

"Tell them to move their asses." I growled. "Scales?"

" _Still holding the back door ape!"_ She had to shout over her gun blasting away at something. Her squad had the toughest job, without Glitch around. We'd had to leave it behind to guard Dietrich and I's battered suits of power armor from tampering. " _Whoever these fuckers are, they're persistent!"_

"No shit." Illyan growled from my left, another long burst causing a feminine voice to start screaming. Another burst cut whoever it was off permanently. "Shyeel, swap in fifteen?"

I slid right as Shyeel darted around me, moving to rest a hand on the taller woman's back to let her know she was there and ready. Her Kishock was secured behind her, a curvy Watcher submachine-gun held in both hands. Seeing her sniper rifle reminded me of our last member and I glanced at the building across the street. "Voya?"

" _Still alive. Thanks for asking."_ She muttered, a brief flash from her gun illuminating a window, " _The company is still holding that market, but the Blood Pack are pressing."_

"Can they hold for five more minutes?"

" _If they can't we're in trouble."_ Voya pointed out unhelpfully.

I growled something uncomplimentary about annoying Quarians pointlessly stating the obvious, then exhaled and forced myself to return to the other conversation I was still in the middle of. "Shepard. You said you needed something else?"

" _Yes._ " If she was annoyed by having to listen to everything else, she didn't sound it. " _Is there any more information you can send about T'Ravt?"_

I stared at the bombed out building Voya was in, blinking a bit. "Shepard, she's my employer. I already went way fucking above and beyond in getting you the units involved in this campaign."

" _I know, but I had to ask."_ This time she did let out an annoyed sound, but it didn't sound like it was directed at me. " _Right. I need everything you know on Father Nithan, of the Brotherhood of the Fallen."_

"Brotherhood?" I glanced to my left as Shyeel's light weapon let out several chattering shots. "I don't know much of anything on them. He on Omega?"

" _Unknown."_

"Great." My fingers shifted around the grip on my weapon. From what little I'd heard when I'd been living on Omega made the Brotherhood sound like a very odd group of people. A combination of mercenaries and missionaries for their blended Turian-Quarian religion. Odd, and definitely dangerous, but not normally the kind of people that a Spectre would go after. "I'll need a week or two to ask around."

" _That long?"_

Irritation rose inside me. "I'm in the middle of a fucking war, and I have no idea if my contacts on Omega still have the same extranet addresses, or even if they know anything about this guy."

There was a pause. " _If they don't?"_

A muscle in my cheek twitched. Way to totally ignore my rant Shepard. "If they don't all ask them who might and direct you to them as we agreed." The constant chatter of gunfire in the background abruptly rose. "Shit. Anything else?"

" _No. I'll contact you in two weeks."_ The radio cut out, my tiny helmet HUD flickering as the the relayed signal from the fleet in orbit closed.

"Bitch could have sent a message." Shyeel growled, flinching back as tracers whipped around the corner before she leaned into it and retaliated. "How much did that call just cost us?"

"Too much." I needed a second to take a steadying breath. "How many?"

"Six or seven." Another burst of fire. "Sorry, seven or eight."

Dammit. There'd only been two when I'd ducked back, and that had barely been two minutes ago. The scant numbers of enemies had been why I'd allowed myself to be distracted with Shepard's call. Someone must have realized what we were doing, or some of the factory's staff had managed to get a call for help out. Either way we needed a better defensive position, and preferably a way to get back to our allies to make extraction easier. "They still at the end of the street?"

"Yeah."

Illyan glanced at me. "Grenade rush?"

"Right from the Blue Sun manual." I agreed. "Prep an Overload, I'll do the same. Voya, covering fire would be nice."

" _Always needing my help."_ Glancing up, I saw her appear in a ruined window for a brief second before she shifted her body into cover, the long barrel of her weapon protruding through the broken glass. " _I see two. You sure you want to take that many in close quarters?"_

"No." I replied bluntly. "But we need fucking breathing space. Go in ten."

She clicked her mic once to acknowledge that. Illyan and I quickly both brought our omni-tools up, the tech launchers on our belts whirring as they loaded. We exchanged a few quick mutters, electing to prep a second mine each to make sure we caught everyone. Their barriers might not have been the best, as was usual for pirates, but having them down would make this simpler. And it might electrocute the ones the initial mines caught.

Ten seconds later we made our move.

Shyeel rolled out of our way, both of us moving through the space she'd once occupied. There was a brief shout of alarm from about fifteen meters down the empty street, then blue discs were whipping away from us, towards a group of five figures. By luck rather than skill, we'd apparently timed it to coincide with their own attempt to move forwards against us. Three were in the open, scrambling to adjust to the rapid movement, with two leaning around the street corners and swearing loudly enough I could hear it over the gunshots.

The overloads detonated more or less at the same time, both of us directing them towards the group in the open. It was gross overkill, but it send all three twitching to the ground, their bodies convulsing as electrical arcs played over them.

I blinked, a little startled. Even cheap combat armor had enough insulation to prevent that level of reaction. I hadn't expected them to do more than be stunned for a moment, at the most.

Voya apparently hadn't either, because her first shot missed, the tracer whipping threw the air one of them had occupied before they'd collapsed. She swore, then shifted her attention to one of the covering pirates still trying to blast away at Shyeel. The first round blew threw his barriers and took a gouge from his helmet. Her second left red blood misting in the air as he collapsed twitching.

"Shyeel, take the downed!" I snapped, Illyan and I both accelerating. By unspoken agreement we corrected our previous mistake and split where we sent the next set of mines. Mine whipped left, hers right, more blue flashes drawing shouts of consternation and pain as barriers were ripped away and bodies electrocuted.

Vaulting over a still twitching woman, I returned my left hand to my pistol and fired off a quick shot at the remaining pirate leaning around the corner. The round missed high and left, ricocheting off the wall. Rounds two and three weren't any more accurate, but by my fourth shot I'd closed to within a few meters of the guy. It slammed into his chest and sent him tumbling back with a scream of pain. I slowed my rush, took a moment to correct my aim, and put round five into his skull.

Behind me, I heard Voya shooting again, and Shyeel's gun let out a pair of shorts bursts.

Keeping my weapon up, I strode to the corner, double-checked the body, then glanced around the corner. Two figures were racing away, ducking into an alley maybe fifty meters down the street. "Two, bolted."

"Nothing on this side boss." Illyan reported. "That was.. anticlimactic."

"Yeah. Get over here and stand point." Stepping back, I turned to see Shyeel with her gun leveled at the prone woman I'd leaped over. She was Batarian, her helmet had gotten torn off at some point, and was clutching at her chest. "Shy?"

"You know I hate it when you shorten my name." She growled as I approached. "It's one extra syllable, stop being lazy."

"Never." I glanced down when my foot nudged the pirate's gun. It was a light rifle local make, decently constructed. Nothing I'd use but cheap and serviceable. The contrast between it and her armor was stark now that I had time to get a closer look at her. From a distance it had looked at least as decent as the weapon, but up close... the paint job was doing a good job of making a basic flak jacket and a few strike plates on her limbs look more than they were. Her helmet was of higher quality, but not by much. "All right, what group?"

She let out a pained sound, and I shifted my gaze to her face. She was... Athame's ass, she was young. A teenager at best, the dark bands on either side of her mouth were little more than discoloration. Her tanned skin had had black stripes added, some kind of war paint, but right now it was smeared as she sobbed and tried to curl around her wound. "Hurts... it.. hurts.."

I blinked several times, then shook myself and dropped to a knee. I managed to get her hand out of the way to see the wound. I stared at it for a long moment, then settled back with a tired sigh. "Dammit."

"Am... I don't..." She whimpered. "Don't want to..."

Dammit. Athame's motherfucking... before I could stop to think about it, I jerked my gun into line with her head and yanked the trigger. Her pained gasps stopped instantly, her body twitching several times before going still.

"Shy..." My lungs filled as I forced myself to take a deep breath. "Go through her effects. Check the others for anything to tell us where they're from, who they report to."

The Asari nodded, a hand brushing the back of my arm in support. "It was that bad?"

"Her stomach and both livers, or whatever organ does the same thing." I reported quietly. "Your aim was solid."

She grunted, shifting her hands to start going through the dead girl's pockets. "Didn't know she was a kid."

"A kid is someone who isn't armed." I shook my head tiredly, remembering all the old justifications I'd told myself when I'd had to gun down drugged up teenagers time and time again. "Thul, tell me you're done in there?"

" _Last charge is set. We're nearer to the back door than the front, I'm moving us to meet with Trena's team. We'll loop around the south side of the building and head for our evac point."_ He reported succinctly. " _Timers are running."_

"Good. Voya, get out of that building, Illyan, let's get gone." Rising with a slight groan, I flicked my omni-tool open to a different channel. "Ayle, we're done and preparing to leave."

" _I'll relay it to the 121st."_ She replied at once. " _Casualties?"_

"None, but... shit." I swore as Illyan waved at me, pointing at a body she'd paused to pull the helmet off of. An old human man, he had to be past fifty, stared sightlessly at the sky. "We're fighting kids and old men Ayle. You hearing reports on that?"

There was a long pause, muted words exchanged with a male voice. " _Jarrick says nothing confirmed."_

"Consider it confirmed." Shyeel pulled a small omni-tool and an ID chit from the girl's body, holding them up for me to see before putting them into a pouch on her belt and rising. "We're heading for the evac site."

" _Routing the shuttles in that direction now."_

"Thank you." She murmured her own response to that, and then killed the line. As usual she didn't waste any time, the pitch of the fighting to the northeast shifting almost at once as the soldiers fighting there shifted strategy from holding the line to managing a controlled withdrawal. "Let's get the fuck out of here."

Not wasting more breath on words, we all got moving back the way we'd come. Voya joined us, picking her way out of the building and then trotting along beside me. The four of us quickly bypassed the parking lot we'd originally landed in, keeping track of the street names as we moved. It had the space we'd need, but absolutely no cover we could use to stay alive. And with the 121st's raiding force pulling back, it would only a matter of time before reinforcements tried to stop us from getting out.

Especially with informants all around us. Here and there I could see the locals looking out at us from windows, their expressions severe enough that we accelerated a bit, tightening our formation from a ragged line into something more professional. I mean, I'd known that Zaen was starting up a propaganda campaign, but shit. I wasn't used to seeing people look at me with level of loathing. Hatred, sure, but...

At one point I saw a young Turian girl, she couldn't have been fucking _ten_ , actually trying to yank open a window before a pair of teenage Batarians pulled her away, one of them seizing a tiny pistol as they hauled her out of sight.

We all kept our weapons up and at the ready after that, and our tech launchers whirred as Voya, Illyan, and I all loaded incinerates. About three blocks of paranoid running brought us to the intersection of Seventh and Ghash, seven other people in navy and silver armor already scattered into defensive formations around the corners.

"Two blocks to the parking garage." Thul called as we approached. His voice lowered as he moved to move on my left, our heads dipping in quick greeting by reflex. "You've noticed the locals?"

"I think we killed a few of them." I grunted back. "We can talk on the shuttle. I've got a bad feeling about staying in this town."

"As do I. Double time it." Suiting my actions to my words, I lengthened my strides a bit. Everyone else accelerated to match me, spreading out in a loose formation across the street. Trena and Voya groaned and huffed as they tried to keep pace with the rest of us. Thul kept his own exhaustion silent, but I could tell he was starting to strain as well.

I'd have slowed the pace if we weren't close enough to our target, and if I didn't feel like there was a dozen guns pointed at me right now.

Shit. What the fuck had Zaen been telling his people?

We made it to the two story building without a fight, or seeing anything worse than more vitriolic glares through barred windows and cracked doors. Darting into the driveway where ground-cars could enter the place, we quickly found the ramp to the next floor and headed up it. The top floor was a typical parking lot, flat, empty, but had convenient chest-high walls made of thick concrete all around the edges.

Taking a moment to catch my breath, I exhaled and wished I felt safer than I did. "Right. Voya, Shy, I want you on the street side at the corners. Trena, your team gets that stairwell over there. Thul, the ramp. Illyan?"

The big Asari nodded, her own armor shifting as she panted. An arm yanked a small disc from her belt, a finger thumbing a button on it. "Beacon online."

"Now we fucking wait." Trena groaned, waving the Kithan over to the concrete box and its open stairwell. "You got the time ape?"

My omni-tool flickered as I brought Ayle back into our general channel. "Ayle, a time-frame would be nice."

" _One minute out."_ Her voice grew slightly alarmed, probably from my tone. " _What's the rush?"_

"We're being watched up here." I surprised myself with how utterly convinced I was of that fact, even though I couldn't see anyone actually staring at us. "I need fucking answers on why everyone in this town would hate us."

" _It was raided last month._ " She pointed out.

"By a minno' oh' a team." Callada growled, her own head on a swivel. "With barely any support. Not much damage ta resent."

"Not by the standards of the Terminus." Thul agreed, his strong voice quiet. He and the Kithans, seemed to be the only ones who weren't starting to seriously twitch. "This is beyond what I would expect from a short-term propaganda campaign."

" _Are you sure you aren't overreacting?"_ Ayle asked, " _It is not as though they are all attacking you on sight."_

"Some of them want to." Shyeel growled, her Kishok already extended and resting on the thick surrounding wall. "If one of them does, school mentality could kick in in a fuckin' hurry."

Voya cut me off before I could begin to agree with her. "I see the shuttle."

Glancing up, I fought the urge to relax as I saw the vehicle rushing towards us at roof-top height. Despite my worries, it wasn't hit by a SAM or any other kind of fire as it roared to a rapid landing after less than a minute. Its engines were screaming as it hovered, the pilot keeping them ready to boost us off at top speed.

All eleven of us piled into the vehicle as rapidly as we could. I left the others to sit, standing with a hand on a ceiling strap as I usually did. It was harder to keep my balance without the power armor and an gyro system, but I'd had practice.

"Hold for a second!" The young Terminus Quarian who was becoming our usual pilot shouted back to us, his voice tense. "I was painted twice on the way in! Trying to pick out a new flight path out of town!"

I swore quietly as the wave hit the beach. "That's why none of them attacked us. They thought they'd take our ride out and leave us stranded."

"Or kill us after we boarded." Shyeel agreed, her voice at least as tense as mine. "Cie, they'd have to have a communications network to damn near every fucking building in town."

"Yeah. What the fuck is Zaen up to?" The question was mostly rhetorical, and the others took it as such. Figuring we'd be moving fast, and probably maneuvering wildly, I slapped at the door controls to shut everything before moving forwards.

I managed to lurch into the cockpit, dropping quickly into the empty co-pilots seat. The young man on my left didn't so much as glance at me, his exposed face locked entirely on his instruments. His features were harsher, more masculine than Voya's, but he shared the same greyish skin with purple markings decorating his forehead and cheekbones. His pale hair was shoulder-length, and curved away from his head in the same mane-like fashion that Voya's got when it was longer. Of course, she didn't have side-burns of stiff white hair that dangled down from the sides of his face.

"How bad?" I asked quietly.

He grunted, his forked tongue briefly appearing as he licked his lips. "Not good. The company's drop ships aren't moving yet either, they're loading Lure missiles. I'm going to use them as a distraction."

I glanced at the clock on one of the countless displays. "There's going to be an explosion in thirty seconds, the factory complex."

"Too long." The pilot dismissed it with a rustling shake of his head. "Seven seconds, brace."

"Brace!" I repeated, raising my voice to shout the word. "Brace!"

My second repetition had barely gotten out of my mouth before I was being slammed into my seat from acceleration so severe the mass effect fields couldn't compensate. The sky outside whirled, the ground briefly becoming 'up', and I realized that he'd just barrel-rolled us off of the garage and into the street. And he'd been flooring it while he did it.

The reason for the insane maneuver became apparent as my brain caught up with what my eyes and ears were telling it. During the roll a screen flashed red as an alarm shrieked, then cut off as we dove between the countless tenements and rushed north. Someone had been about to blast us with surface-to-air missiles, and we'd barely dodged out of line of sight to break the targeting lock.

The young man kept us skimming along at an altitude I didn't dare check. Once the shuttle's fields had adjusted enough to let me gasp for air properly, I leaned forwards and checked over what systems I could read. Most of it was beyond me, but riding in shuttles like this one twice a week for several months had taught me some of the basics.

On my right, the radar was lighting off like a exploding bomb. Active ground radar had been switched on, briefly reflecting off of us when we had to bounce up to avoid things like street lamps or ground vehicles. The company's drop ships had already flung out their decoy missiles, the things whipping around and broadcasting false identifications to try and lure SAM's and ground fire in their direction instead of at the ships currently accelerating away as quickly as they could. They were dropping chaff and firing flares as they did, making even more of a mess of the screen.

The entire city had been a fucking trap, I realized belatedly, barely noticing when the factory we'd been sent to blow up exploded behind us. They hadn't sprung it when we'd arrived, they'd probably been taken by surprise. Then instead of taking us on the ground, they'd done the smart thing and waited for us to call for extraction. Our shuttles and drop ships were as valuable, if not more so, than the troops they carried.

Shit. If someone hadn't gotten excited and tried to aim their missiles at the shuttle while it was inbound, we might have boosted off normally and gotten blasted out of the sky. Athame or the Pillars must have seriously been smiling at us. Those thoughts, such as they were, kept me distracted as we flew. It was a good thing, really. I hated being stuck in a shuttle under fire, unable to do anything besides hope the kid on my left knew his shit well enough to keep us alive.

Today, at least, he did.

We rocketed out of what passed for downtown, then curled in a harsh bank that left us on an opposite heading from the 121st's dropships and shuttles. He kept us stupidly low through the outskirts, and at one point had me smash a button to throw off chaff when someone nearly got a lock-on to us.

"We're clear." He reported ten nerve-wracking minutes later, the ground giving way to open ocean beneath us. "I'm going to swing us a bit east to be safe, then head back to headquarters. Hour, tops."

"Thanks Naka." I dipped my head in his direction respectfully, undoing my harness before tiredly rising and shuffling back to where everyone else was. "Good news everyone, we're still alive."

" _No_." Trena drawled sarcastically. "I thought I was fucking cuddling with Athame's tits right now."

"Illyan, hit her please." The big Asari snorted but did so, hard enough that scales yelped even with her armor on. "Thank you. Ayle, Jarrick, either you on the line?"

" _I am."_ Ayle's voice echoed a moment later, " _Jarrick is occupied. The 121st lost four shuttles, and two fighters that came down from orbit to cover them were shot down. The rest made it out."_

Thul murmured a quiet prayer before speaking. "Are we in agreement that the target was a trap? Likely chosen because of the prior raid's failure?"

" _We were until we started getting similar reports from other operations."_ Our Commander sighed through her teeth. " _Nothing to the extent of what you saw, but other raiding forces are reporting that the local population is engaging them almost from touch-down. Not many of them, they initially thought they were pirates or cheap mercs stranded here, just like we did."_

"Suicide." Shyeel shook her head. "They might take some of us down but they're going to be massacred for it. Why do that for some warlord?"

"Not for him." A deep, strong voice spoke, nearly making me glance around to see if there was someone else in here with us. It was probably only the second or third time I'd heard Faras speak outside of terse combat reports. "For their homes. Families. The more we kill them, the more we prove ourselves vile invaders, the more hatred and resentment builds."

"The more that volunteer to fight back." Thul rumbled, his voice tired and almost sad. "Allowing Zaen to reduce his garrison forces, releasing the Vorcha there for front line combat. He could leave the Krogan in place to command the militia."

"Or just have the pirates and mercs do it." I sighed.

"Or that." He agreed. "The trap we nearly blundered into was a good plan, abliet poorly executed. It was likely supposed to boost their morale with an easy victory."

"The plan could have been better." Trena rolled a shoulder, kicking her short legs out as she slumped against Illyan's side. "They shoulda blown the shuttles to shit as soon as they were on their way to pick us up. Leave us fucking stranded in the city. Probably kill our team, but keep the 121st's troops encircled."

I grunted, seeing where she was going with it. "Force Kaste to try and rescue them. This far south he'd have to do it by air, they could have put more defenses around the city to make any attempt costly as fuck."

"They couldn't!" Naka called from the cockpit, evidently having been listening in. "The Lady Warlord brought in three of those old Blue Sun pocket carriers two weeks back, their fighters have been escorting the big raids out east! The pilot briefings we get say he's got to be low on mobile SAM launchers at this point, and they've taken out all the GARDIAN towers outside of the capital!"

So what we'd seen had been about the best they could have done, in that sense at least. "He have any strike craft of his own left?"

"Not sure! We think most of them got trashed in the space battle, if he's got any left he's probably keeping them back until he really fucking needs them."

" _I can confirm that."_ Ayle spoke again. " _I looked over that data yesterday while I was... recovering from my therapy session. Orbital images show a few craft on runways and launch pads in the capital, but Zaen isn't releasing them for combat operations."_

"One thing we don't have to worry about then." Shyeel sighed. "We probably should have been though. Shit, this staying on one planet thing is getting old Cie."

I couldn't disagree with her. It was... shit, it was just weird living in the same place for more than a week straight. Weirder still to be dealing with the same people day after day, week after week. The constant honorable politeness from the Xenthans was starting to get at me as well, it was like constantly dealing with Nynsi. Ayle showing up had insulated me a bit from that, but since I was still the combat leader I was stuck in meetings and briefings I'd have rather just gotten a memo about. Shit, it had gotten to the point where I'd realized that I actually _missed_ dealing with Sederis and her utter unapologetic viciousness.

Trena had stared at me like I'd grown an extra limb when I'd told her that, but Voya and Shyeel had groaned and admitted they entirely agreed with me.

" _Regardles, we're stuck here."_ Ayle reminded her, and the rest of us. " _Colonel Kaste just pulled out of the next three raids, we need to regroup based on the new information coming in. We're getting more reports of other attempted ambushes, some of which were run far more effectively than the one you were nearly caught in."_

A muscle in my cheek twitched. "When's the staff meeting?"

" _As soon as you land._ " Her tone became amused. " _Your presence is required."_

Of course it was. "Are the parts for the armor in?"

 _"Yes, you can work on that after the meeting_."

Of course I could. Shit, three raids canceled meant I had three days. Kaste would probably want the next planned raid to go off as planned to avoid having the General start demanding action or trying to micromanage us. He'd done it before, to other units who hadn't been keeping up with the demanding schedule he'd set out. The asshole had unleashed his snooty staff to oversee every little detail until the units had shaped up. It had worked, and been amusing from the outside, but I had no desire to deal with that kind of shit. Neither would Kaste.

Three days... fuck. Illyan and Trena could handle a lot of the repairs, but the suits had gotten pretty banged up when we'd hit that tungsten mine. I'd have to help, even with the meetings eating at my time.. shit. Sleep was about to become a luxury.

Sighing _,_ I dropped into the open seat next to Voya and let my posture slip into an undignified slouch. Relaxing my neck, I rested my helmet against the stiff padding behind me, and settled in to try and catch a nap while I could. I was asleep in under a minute, feeling myself slumping against my friend as her petite frame leaned against my side.

* * *

_**Broker Network Transmission** _

_This is the Shadow Broker. The situation is under control. We experienced a temporary power failure that lead to a communications blackout. The problem has been corrected, and we are now back online. Resume standard procedures. I want a status report on all operations by the conclusion of the next solar day._

_Shadow Broker out._

* * *

_**Next up is Operation: Strike and Fade II** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is mostly a setup chapter, with a tiny bit of action thrown in. The next chapter will cover the aftermath of another small raid, with the following covering a full-strike operation in detail. As for the post-chapter transmission above... I'm looking forwards to the guessing game. ;)
> 
> For those curious, I have added another resource-fic to the AR series in order to expand a bit on backstory and provide reminders about characters who don't crop up in Cieran's story as often (but are still important to what is going on in the background). Currently it has the basic descriptions of the Butcher of Torfan, the Sole Survivor, and the Lionness of Elysium, a Broker Report on Shepard, an AAR of the Alliance raid on Carastes, and an AIS report on T'Ravt's military. The next two chapters will focus on Nynsi (and what she's been up to), and then Cieran (how he's viewed from an outside perspective).
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	32. Operation: Strike and Fade II

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

**Operation: Strike and Fade II**

_Date: 07-01-2183_

_Location: Hintertown, Redcliffe, Feralda System, Northern Terminus_

* * *

"Fuck ape." Trena groaned as her head hit the bar. We were in the corner of it, up near the wall, and the local patrons were giving us a polite amount of space. "It's like the fucking True Sons all over again. 'cept even more fucked. Fucking assholes throwing fucking kids and old men into the fucking fighting."

"Use your words scales." I sighed, reaching out to pluck her mostly empty drink out of her hands. "Preferably a broader variety of them."

"Shut up." She slurred, more for the melodrama of it than because she was actually drunk. Considering the fact that she'd only had two drinks so far, she probably wasn't even tipsy. "Asshole. You've really turned into a cold asshole, you know that?"

"Yeah." Leaning back in my chair, I stared at the cup I'd taken from her and then downed what was left in a single gulp. I'd restricted myself to a single mixed drink so far, so I wasn't buzzed either, which was unfortunate. It would have made forgetting things a bit easier. "Shit."

My companion shifted a bit, rolling her head to one side so that she could glare up at me. "We had to kill them?"

I flinched a little. "What else were we supposed to do? We couldn't exactly bring thirty prisoners back with us. Letting them go just results in them grabbing their guns again and trying to kill us or someone else the next time."

She sagged a little more. "Some of them were so fucking young ape... we didn't even let them finish trying to surrender."

"We made it fast." I didn't bother trying to make that sound like that mattered in the slightest. "How's Illyan?"

"Shyeel's fucking her senseless is how she is. At least, they were when I left to meet you here. Probably still are." Trena picked her head up enough to fold her arms on the bar, then rested her chin on them. "It might help her forget for a while, better than booze anyway. Fucking kids with guns... shit, how old you think that Turian brat even was? The one that played dead, then tried to claw her throat out?"

"Eight. Maybe. Shit, I don't know." Reaching up with a hand, I rubbed furiously at my face. "Athame's ass... they were trying to kill us, what the fuck else were we supposed to do?"

She grunted quietly. "Not be there, I guess. Think we can get front-line assignments?"

"The 121st is supposed to rotate into reserve when the next wave of reinforcements gets here, and we go with it. Then we're back on the front after maybe a month of maintenance and rest."

"Six more weeks of this... which front?"

"Capital. Desert warfare here we come." She made a disgusted face. "I know, but at least it'll be back to Krogan and Vorcha instead of this militia crap."

"Thank Athame for the gifts of the tide I guess." Trena kept staring at the assembled bottles on the wall opposite us. "You hear about down south?"

"No. Jarrick find out something?"

She rolled a shoulder in a tiny shrug. "Slave rush, in that coastal city. Must have gathered them from across that continent."

"... shit. Losses?"

"Most of two second-line regiments. Commando teams took out their artillery and headquarters right before it happened."

I grunted quietly. "Krom."

"Krom." She agreed. "For the low fucking cost of a few thousand slaves, took out pretty much two goddess-damned units and rolled three more back into the outskirts. Night Sisters went down after him but he was gone before they even got to the fucking city."

My eyes flicked over to where Mirala sat at the other end of the bar, her expression somewhere between furious and murderous as she and her three companions argued about something. They looked about as calm and relaxed as their leader, and there was a good ten feet of open space around them despite the fact that the bar was rather crowded. "Been wondering why they were in a snit."

"Yeah." The word was mostly a mumble before she sighed and rose into a proper sitting position as the bartender glided over to grab the empty glass I'd set down. "Refill, and an extra glass."

The Asari currently on duty nodded, taking the cup before turning and grabbing a bottle of rum. We stayed silent as she poured, handing our drinks to us one at a time before heading away from our corner.

Sipping the bitter liquid, I let the taste linger before swallowing. "You disappointed in me?"

"For what? Killing people trying to surrender to us?" Her left shoulder rolled as she drank. "Or all the crap you did while I was on Illium?"

"Both." I replied quietly. "I'm guessing Illyan's told you some of the shit we've gotten up to."

"She did. Voya told me the rest. I'm... shit. Ape, I still... I remember when you were just a maiden, shaking and in shock after killing a Salarian who wanted to kill you. It's... fuck. Not easy to forget that."

I snorted quietly. "That was only three years ago."

"Yeah. Athame's fucking azure, feels like longer."

"Right?" My head shook. "Trena..."

Her cheeks puffed slightly as she exhaled. "Later ape. After we've caught this son of a bitch, we'll go home and get drunk as fuck, beat the crap out of each other, and call each other idiots for liking each other so goddess-damned much."

Snorting, I brought my glass up so we could clack them together. "I could take you and you know it."

"You could fucking try." We shared grins that didn't reach our eyes, subsiding into long pulls from the liquor. "We need to stop talking about this crap ape, or you're not going to sleep."

I wouldn't sleep either way, and she knew it. I could pass out on a shuttle at a second's notice, but give me a bed and I'd stare at the ceiling for hours on fucking end. "How's Ethy?"

"Tiny. And blue." Trena's eyes unfocused as her smile turned soft and genuine. "I miss her."

"You miss taking care of her and being woken up in the middle of the night by screaming?" Her grin faded as she glared at me. "What? Not supposed to remind you about that part while you're reminiscing? Or do you just make Ghai do all of that?"

"No. You aren't. And no, I don't." She kept glowering. "Asshole."

My lips twitched a little. "And yet you like me so much you came to fight a war with me."

"I must be fucking insane."

"Probably are." I agreed, earning myself a light punch to the shoulder before lifting a hand to point at a booth. "Callada wants you. Probably in more than one way."

Trena blinked, then turned to see the Reyja'krem patting the open seat beside her. Across from her, Dietrich had a young black woman wearing a simple blue dress. I recognized her as one of the waitresses, evidently off duty, and she was giggling as she fed him pieces of pie. "You think she'll feed me if I go?"

I snorted. "If she won't, I'm sure you can offer her a reason to."

"Good point ape." Her lips curled in a little smirk as she hopped to her feet, but she paused before moving. "You going to make it alone?"

"I survived more than a year without you around. I think I can handle myself for a night." My right shoulder twitched. "Ghai isn't going to mind?"

Her eyes rolled. "You hit your head or some shit?"

I blinked a few times then glanced down at my rum. "Must be something in this. Going to record it for her?"

"If Cal lets me." Trena gave me a wicked grin before turning away and gliding over to the booth, putting an extra roll in her hips that drew Callada's attention downwards and made her eyes glaze a bit. Trena laughed and gave her a light punch, then idly hopped into the other Asari's lap. Sure enough, less than a breath later Callada was shoving desert into Trena's mouth.

Asari... Shaking my head in bemusement, I turned away and settled in to drink and think. Pacing myself on the former, I lost myself in the latter.

The last couple of weeks had gotten progressively rougher. We'd adjusted the regiment's raiding strategy to be more conservative. The missions were now launched in full company strength only, and the unit's artillery and armor were alternating assignments. Each raid would have one or the other to counter-act the fact that we could expect to be outnumbered by large numbers of militia, Vorcha, or both. Since we obviously couldn't sustain one mission per day as a full team, Kaste and Ayle had worked out an agreement where we cherry-picked which raids we'd go on, at a minimum of two per week.

Our tactics had also taken a shift. The pilots had taken to setting down further away from the targets and advancing, rather than our prior bold landing zones. The regiment's casualties had risen as a result of having to fight our way forwards, but we'd also evaded another SAM trap as a result. That had been a luckier mission, since both us and the armored unit had been with. We'd teamed up to smash three mobile launchers plus a concealed GARDIAN tower that looked like it had still been under construction.

It had been our most successful run in a while, and we'd celebrated it hard.

Probably a good thing, considering our next mission had been this morning's, and it had gone to shit right from the start. We'd been going after an open-pit copper mine, nothing major really, and hadn't expected much resistance. Get in right before dawn, blow up all the machinery, and get out in under an hour. Instead we'd run into better than a thousand militia lead by a Turian pirate who'd known what he was doing.

The artillery had smashed most of the heavy equipment, but they'd moved quite a bit of it into a bunker warehouse that the regiment's light guns couldn't breach so we'd had to go in there to get demo charges into place. We'd had to breach four consecutive defensive lines, deal with an improvised minefield, and then fight our way through the small town that supported the mines.

The last had been the real bitch of it. Instead of bolting, most of the local citizens had grabbed guns and started shooting, leading to... well. A lot of crap. Artillery had flattened most of the buildings, but we'd still had to pick our way through, dealing with partisans and snipers and...

I sighed and downed most of my remaining rum.

"Long morning?" A smooth voice asked as an Asari dropped into the chair Trena had vacated, Mirala holding a drink of her own in one hand.

"Fucking Turians." I muttered, leaving the part about the people who'd tried to surrender out. "Practically everyone else got the idea after we flattened most of a town, but they fight to the fucking death. Even the kids and elderly."

She made a clicking sound with her tongue. "That's Turians for you, they don't really understand the concept _not_ fighting to the death. I got used to it a century or so ago."

"Yeah, well, I don't have a century." I grunted. "Well, I might but I don't think I'll be fighting when I'm a hundred and thirty."

"You never know. Medical advancements and all that." The Asari snorted when I just rolled my eyes. "This morning was what, another mining complex?"

"Yeah. Heard you went after Krom."

Her face twisted. "Don't bring that up. Fucking idiots, we would have had him if they'd realized he was there even twenty minutes sooner."

I grunted quietly, sipping from my drink. "That's still closer than the rest of us have come."

"Close only counts for hurricanes and nuclear explosions." She muttered, waving the bartender over and tapping her glass. "Goddess. I just had to say it, now we'll hear that Zaen tried to throw some of _those_ at us to go with all the other crap he's pulling out of his ass."

It was my turn to scowl. "If he does I'm going to shoot you for jinxing it."

"I might let you." Mirala sighed. "Dammit. I was so sure we'd have him... this hunt is getting tiresome. Like going after a thurial that only comes up for air right when the waves are cresting to ruin your aim."

"The campaign is finally turned around. We'll be driving on the capital again in a few weeks." I reminded her. "We could have him by the end of the year."

"Five more fucking months." She growled. "Most of it spent in a goddess-damned desert."

"So leave. You don't have a personal stake in this, you could."

"Are you kidding? Even splitting his bounty four ways would give me enough to buy a mansion on Omega with enough security to keep me alive for two centuries." Her head bowed in thanks as her new drink arrived, and she quickly threw some of it back. "He's always just ahead of us. I don't suppose the investigations...?"

My scowl deepened. "They've narrowed it down to someone here, in Hintertown. Either on the main communications team or the general staff. No obvious money trail, or any idea how they're getting him data. I think they're going after the comm guys first."

"They'd have the easiest time of covering anything they sent." Mirala nodded slightly. "Question is how. No burst transmissions, no satellite in orbit to bounce a laser off of... so how."

"No fucking idea."

"Lovely." She exhaled. "I'm getting really tired of mysteries, and I'd never thought I'd say that."

"They're complicated." I agreed. "Thus annoying. Something to be said for straightforwards and simple."

Blue lips twitched a little. "I'd say something involving innuendo to that, but I don't think you're intoxicated enough to fall for it."

"I don't think I'd be so stupid even if I _was_ drunk." A shoulder rolled as I reached up to tap my temple. "I have enough problems without adding seizures to the list."

She snorted a little, but her grin faded as she cocked her head a little. "What's it like?"

"What is what like?"

A hand waved at my head. "The condition."

"Annoying." My voice quieted a little. "Migraines that can knock me onto my ass mostly. If they hook me up to a eezo sensor to simulate a meld... pain. Like glass being cut across every nerve in my body, and not something I like remembering. What's it like for you?"

Her expression became a neutral mask. "I don't have that condition."

"Yeah." I knew she didn't. "That's not what I meant. You remember that detective you hired, couple of months back? The one who looked into General Mascal for us? I hired another guy to check on him, make sure he wasn't cheating us or skimping on the data."

Mirala said nothing, stared at nothing.

"Turns out he vanished a couple of weeks ago. The guy I hired couldn't find anything except lots of rumors that he'd been chasing after you, going out on dates when you weren't on mission." I continued, making sure to keep my voice low enough not to carry. "He broke into the other guy's place, found tons of crappy poetry about you. Neighbors said the last time they heard anything from him was when you went home with him, and that you weren't quiet about how much you enjoyed whatever happened."

More nothing. I could have replaced her with a statue.

"You and your team don't socialize like other Asari. You flirt, but you never take anyone to bed that we've seen. The four of you stay in your little clique, never quite making anyone else welcome, yet not quite pushing them away either..." I paused, giving her a chance to interject, to do something besides blink. "Miarala, are you stupid enough to try and seduce me or someone on my team?"

She gave me an oblique look.

"Then I really don't give a shit." Another shrug. "If I _did_ care, I would have already done something. I was asking an honest question, you don't have to answer."

Fingers drummed slowly on the bar, her eyes returning to nothing in particular as she sighed. "It isn't something I enjoy talking about."

"Fair enough. What do you want to talk about then?"

"How bantering with you was supposed to improve me mood rather than worsen it." Mirala muttered. "Thank you for that, by the way."

"I'll pay your tab." I grunted. "By way of apology."

"It's a start." She threw back the last dregs of her drink and waved for another. We stayed silent while the bartender tended to that, my competitor speaking only after the other Asari was gone. "You figured it out on your own?"

"No. The Asari on my team noticed the oddities first, the detective added a few more clues. Trena put them all together, she knew one when she was with the Eclipse apparently. Make you feel better?"

"Not really." Fingers drummed a new rhythm as she seemed to lose herself behind her eyes for several moments. "Your word that you won't reveal this to anyone not on your team?"

"Given." She relaxed minutely at that. "So. Change of topic, yes?"

"Goddess yes. How well did your little execution go down with the Warlord?"

I assumed she meant the one where we'd dealt with the assholes who'd taken Jack from us. "With her? Fine, excepting the part where she was practically blood raging that it had happened at all. Her finances are getting all fucked up now, and she's having to adjust things."

"Like?" Mirala prompted.

"Like the Blue Suns Legion might be her new police force." My lips twisted a little at the very idea. "Or at least part of it. One of Illyan's conquests heard a few things before the _Dark Tide_ unfurled her sails to head back to Xentha, she passed them along to us. Big one is that T'Ravt is contemplating putting together a new office, minders basically. Commissars. They'd make sure her word and honor are kept, and execute anyone who fucks up."

"Political officers." The Asari shook her head. "How very fucking human, or maybe Batarian."

"What else can she do?" I shrugged. "Both of the PMC's she's got hired on increased their rates by ten percent. According to what I've read on some of the message boards for mercs, she could lose as many as one in five of the smaller groups that are hired on. If you can't trust her word that you won't get fucked when you hire on..."

"Why bother." She grunted. "They could hire on with Aria or Bauer instead, or join the Eclipse, and not have to worry about someone drugging them and selling them off. And the ones who _do_ stay are going to be the more desperate, the lower end units. Still, surprised the reaction was that bad."

"Three other teams, out on the eastern front, are all accusing her people of similar crap. No idea if it's true, but if it could happen to a team she personally hired..."

"It's believable it could happen to anyone else."

Another shrug made my left shoulder roll. "Yeah."

Mirala exhaled. "But the goddess-damned Blue Suns Legionnaires? I never thought letting that group of assholes stay together was a good idea, now she's going to try and use them like her personal Justicars? That storm is going to boil her alive and it'll be her own fault."

"Entirely possible." I agreed. Honestly I thought it was just as bad of an idea as she did, but T'Ravt had been utterly _livid_ at what had happened to Jack. She'd signed our contract personally, the notion that one of her military units would backstab us like they had... if Mascal hadn't calmed her down, and if Ayle hadn't pressed our right to kill them, she'd have probably executed each and every member of the unit personally.

Well, not my problem either way. If the currents carried her to the deeps it would be her own problem, I had enough shit to worry about.

Mirala and I spent most of the next hour just drinking socially, bitching about the campaign, bitching about the heat, and bitching about our other competitors. And occasionally bitching at each other or about each other's squad-mates, which was to be entirely expected. Neither one of us got drunk, or even slightly inebriated. I wasn't about to drop my guard around her, now that she'd confirmed what Trena had suspected, and I didn't think she would lower hers around me either.

I didn't think she'd try and kill me or us for knowing what she was, not after I'd given my word that we wouldn't talk, but it was better to be paranoid than dead.

Still, she was congenial company, and I paid her tab as promised when the bar started to close up around midnight. The place had mostly emptied out by then, everyone recognizing that closing time was coming and that it was time to go back to their bunks to prepare for whatever the next day brought. Trena and Callada had gone about thirty minutes before, each with an arm around the others waist, while Dietrich had probably gone to wherever his date lived.

Mirala's team had also called it quits for the night earlier than we had, and were already gone. Which more or less left the two of us to walk back to the base from downtown on our own.

"You don't really need that cane, do you?" She asked about a block from the bar, both of us having pulled our helmets on.

"No." I admitted, clinking the walking stick with every other step. "Not unless I fuck up my left leg again, but it's less obviously threatening than a gun."

The Asari scoffed. "To idiot who don't know it _is_ a gun maybe. Your pistol grip isn't subtle."

"You'd be surprised at how many don't realize it."

"You think the idiots following us won't?"

I blinked a little, then sighed. "Tell me you're fucking joking."

"Rear camera in my helmet, comes in handy when there's a Nightwind capture team that wants to put a collar around your neck." She rolled her shoulders, disguising the warm-up stretch as an exaggerated shrug. "Four of them, all locals. They were waiting outside the bar. Either they just happened to decide to leave when we did, or..."

"Or." I sighed again. "Any of your squad mates go on dates?"

"No, they're smarter than that." Her tone turned defensive. "The ones without self-control end up dead or collared within a decade. The detective is the only one we've taken."

"I wasn't offering insult." My right hand rose placatingly, "Just trying to find a motive. They local gang you think?"

She was silent a moment. "Might be, but we're on the main path back to base. There's a fucking soldier on every corner."

Which was entirely true. I nodded at a tall Turian in white armor as we passed him, the soldier nodding back politely. From the lack of shouting or gunfire, our tails didn't give themselves away stupidly by provoking him or making their intent obvious. Whatever that intent was.

"Well," I mused quietly, thinking it over. "Unless they want to kick off a rebellion they'd lose, the only thing I can think of is that they want to talk."

"Or that they're morons who don't realize that attacking us would be suicide."

It was my turn to disguise a stretch as a long shrug. "Then we'll kill them."

There was a chuff of breath. "I'm starting to like working with you, Kean."

Snorting, I slowed my pace to a stop before turning in place. We were in a commercial area, plenty of businesses and shops all closed up for the night. The soldier we'd passed was about fifty meters behind us, still standing sentry duty at an intersection. I'd seen another about the same distance ahead, so whatever we talked about with these idiots should stay private if they didn't shout. It also left both Turians in easy support-fire range if they _did_ try anything.

All four of them had jerked to a halt when we'd suddenly turned around. They were a couple of meters away, all four of them green-tinged Batarians, all in ragged clothing with what were probably subtle gang markings decorating their sleeves.

I thumped my cane once and cocked my head deeply to the right, the Highborn rolling out of my lips. "You are following us."

Three of the four cringed reflexively, and their apparent leader visibly fought to not take a step back. They definitely knew who I was, going by that reaction, but none of them bowed their heads in respect back at me

Growling, I took a single step forwards and slammed the end of my cane more sharply into the ground. "I would like an answer as to why, trash."

This time their heads _did_ duck to the left, and all four took a slight step away from me. Their courage at defying social convention evidently had its limits. The leader licked his lips once, then seemed to gather himself to straighten. "We... bring a message, warrior."

So this was about me then. Lovely. "Then speak it."

His mouth twisted a little at my commanding tone. "It is to be spoken privately, to you only."

I frowned at him, my helmet concealing the expression. On my left, Mirala shifted slightly, acting as though she had all the time in the world to wait for this drama to play out. "I don't find myself caring. Tell me the message."

More anger rose, his open nostrils flaring as he exhaled. "I was commanded to-"

" _I_ command you to tell me the message." I cut him off, my cane snapping up. The other three immediately back away from the man in the center, which set off more alarm bells in my head. They'd scattered in a circle, rather than simply clearing the line of fire. That implied they knew my cane wasn't just a cane, or even a gun. "Who sent you?"

The Batarian stared at me for several long seconds, his eyes unblinking, his posture... turning into a very odd looking slouch. "I have a message for you, to be spoken privately."

Something about the way he said that made the skin on the back of my neck tighten, and I realized that he and the others weren't quite cowering before my display of social dominance anymore. "From who?"

More steady stares. "I have a message for you, to be spoken privately."

"Kean." Mirala's voice was low, stressed. "I don't think we should be near them. Something is seriously fucked up here."

"Yeah..." Keeping my cane up, I started slowly walking backwards. "You four, stay where you-"

"She sings to us." The Batarian spoke, his voice turning monotone. "Like the song of the sea. She compels us to speak with you, Eleven. To bring you her message."

I froze in place. There was only one 'she' I could think of who would call me by that. "Matriarch T'Ravt."

"You know the name of the goddess?" His head cocked to one side. It was... _wrong_. The entire motion screamed Asari elegance but no Batarian would hang their head while standing like that. I took another two steps back before I realized I as moving. "She misses her wayward warrior, Eleven. Too late she realized you were her true success, not the mewling Sixteen. Come back to her."

"Kean?" Mirala's voice was even more tense, if that was possible. "We... need to get away from them. They're... they're _wrong._ I can _feel_ it even from here."

"Yeah..." Swallowing, I forced my legs to resume backpedaling, my desire to get away stronger than the curiosity that demanded I find out what the fuck T'Ravt had done to these poor fools. And if an Ardat-Yakshi was freaking out, it was more than past time to leave. "All of you stay-"

They burst into motion before I could finish the sentence, moving faster than I would have thought they'd be capable of. I yanked the trigger on my cane at once, the disc whipping forwards, exploding in the leader's face in a flash of fire.

He didn't scream. Didn't make a sound. Didn't so much as _stumble._ His face was nothing more than a burned mass of flesh, all four of his eyes immolated, but he kept running straight at me.

I had enough time to stare at him in shock before he hit me with his full mass, tackling me clumsily to the ground. Instinct from too many sparring matches with Illyan and Voya kicked in, and I rolled away from him before he could try to grapple, the motion bringing me up to a knee. The blinded and burned man punched the ground where I'd just been, then froze as he realized I wasn't there anymore.

There was a blue-black flash as a gout of warpfire roared out from Mirala's hand, the dark energy ripping through one of the Batarians that had rushed at her. I saw his outline for a few brief moments, his rush slowing, then stopping as the dark energy ripped him into a bloody mess.

A blur of motion made me lurch to my right as I tried to stand, taking a punch to my shoulder rather than to my helmet. I _heard_ the guy's bones breaking when he hit me, but his four eyes remained focused and intent. Twisting my cane up, I parried away a jab with his other hand, forcing my legs to straighten and get me off the fucking ground before he overpowered me.

Another punch got past my defenses, his broken hand slammed into my chest hard enough to drive me back. The fear really kicked in about then, my heart hammering at the sheer _wrongness_ of someone punching me that hard with a fucking hand that was already broken. The guy should have been on the ground and screaming in agony, not still trying to kill me.

Twirling my cane around, I planted the end of it into his gut and shoved. He skidded back, recovering his balance awkwardly. It wasn't much of an opening, but it was enough. Dropping my cane, I yanked my heavy pistol off of my belt and swung it into line with his chest.

The first shot puffed blood out of his left side, the second from his stomach. Number three caught him in the right shoulder as he advanced on me, while the fourth whacked into his neck. He kept fucking coming, visibly trying to accelerate before slowing. His expression turned puzzled for a brief moment, his eyes blinking as he focused. I think he tried to say something, but only a burbling gasp of blood emerged before he collapsed.

Swinging my head around, I found Mirala slamming the last mobile opponent away from her with biotics, the Batarian tumbling when he hit the street. He tried to gather himself only for the soldier we'd passed earlier to gun him down with an efficient burst.

"She will come for you." The voice was a rasping croak, and I spun to see the blinded and burned Batarian still sitting on the ground. "She will come for you human. For all of you."

"That's nice." I panted, swinging my gun into line with his head. I yanked hard on the trigger once, watching as he collapsed. "Not the last words I would have gone with, but nice."

Alarms were blaring somewhere nearby, and both of the nearby soldiers were sprinting in our direction. One was demanding we lower our weapons, the other was demanding to know if we were all right.

"Kean." Miarala let out a ragged breath as she stared at the four bodies. "Remember what I said, about liking working with you?"

"Yeah."

"I don't anymore."

I stared at her through my helmet for a few moments, then let out a chocked breath of laughter as the relief of being alive washed over me. The Asari stared at me for a few moments while I chortled, then turned away as a strangled noise escaped her throat.

By the time both of the Turians had arrived beside us, staring at the bodies in shock and confusion, we were both howling like idiots.

* * *

_**Broker Network Transmission** _

_All assets are to cease communication with Operative Keshan, Operative Sheen, and Operative T'Lorea. All four Republics cells have been compromised. All assets within the Asari Republics are to destroy their ciphers, up-links, and any documentation before proceeding per emergency plan five._

_The Network will be offline for approximately nine days while main headquarters is transitioned to a secure location. I expect full reports from all current operatives upon completion._

_Shadow Broker out._

* * *

_**Next up is Operation: Strike and Fade III** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, we've finally heard from the Matriarch again. Next chapter will cover a bit of how everyone handles her 'message', plus the last major raid that the unit will conduct before their month of R&R. After that will be the main push on Zaen's fortress city.
> 
> I've also adjust the name of the Those Who Fight story, and it's intro chapter, to indicate that it is intended to be read as a companion to this fic. So expect the post-chapter sections in this story to become teasing and hinting, while the more detailed background data is put into that story. For example, a lot of what Shepard is going to be up to will be put there so that everyone can gain a better understanding of how much canon is changing (or was already changed).
> 
> Interlude chapters will maintain their extra length, along with the secondary POV added at the end (expect to alternate between Trena and Voya).
> 
> For those curious about the state of the poll, the top three remain the same, though there's been a slight change to the order:
> 
> 1st place – Voya with 30% of the votes
> 
> 2nd place – Illyan with 17% of the votes
> 
> 3rd place – Sederis with 16% of the votes
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	33. Operation: Strike and Fade III

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

**Operation: Strike and Fade III**

_Date: 07-02-2183_

_Location: Hintertown, Redcliffe, Feralda System, Northern Terminus_

* * *

"While I'm flattered that you still find me desirable," Ayle covered a yawn with her only hand, having apparently detached her prosthetic arm for the night. By dint of being our Commander, she'd taken the seat next to my console, leaving everyone else crammed into my room to find their own places to stand or sit. "I'm really not in the mood for an orgy Cie. Especially at this time in the morning."

Trena snorted from where she was sitting on my tiny dresser. She was wearing a robe that was too large for her, one of Callada's probably, and absolutely reeked of sweat and sex. Enough for me to notice even from where I was lounging tiredly on my bunk. "This would be one fucked up orgy."

"Indeed." Thul rumbled from beside the door, his own clothing as neat and unruffled as if I hadn't just woken him two hours before the dawn. "But perhaps we could shift the topic? Maybe even to the reason Cieran felt the need to wake all of us, and why he is hiding a heavy bruise on his left side."

Five other heads all turned to stare at me. Well, three of them were staring, two had narrowed their eyes into glares. Voya growled from her own bunk on the other-side of the room, Shyeel edging a bit away from her. "Cieran."

I gave a glare of my own to Thul, who simply dipped his head in a vaguely unapologetic fashion. "I'm fine, just a punch."

Illyan, laying flat on the floor and wearing plain underwear that made me want to look far more than I should have, craned her head up to frown at me. "A punch? Boss since when could someone who isn't me get close enough to punch you?"

"You are rather adroit at hand to hand." Shyeel murmured, breaking her words off to yawn before resuming. "Did you and that demon piss off a Krogan?"

"No." I drummed my fingers once on my thigh, then sighed. "Four Batarian hitters courtesy of Matriarch Cynthi T'Ravt."

The reactions to that statement were decidedly mixed. Voya jerked into a rigid posture of alarm, and Trena swore as she nearly fell off the piece of furniture. Everyone else just stared at me in vague confusion until they noticed the other's reactions. All four of Ayle's eyes narrowed, a pair flipping to Trena and Voya before flicking back to me. "What don't I... the four of us, know?"

"A lot. It's-"

"Ape." Trena's tone was a mixture of warning and confusion. "You sure?"

"They deserve to know." I replied simply. "I doubt the poor idiots Mirala and I killed will be the last ones, and it's entirely possible that you all will be around the next time."

Illyan bit her lip, shifting her arms behind her head as a makeshift pillow. "This... about all that stuff you two would never tell me about? The top secret meetings with Sederis?"

"Yeah." Reaching up, I ran a hand through my loose hair. It was slick with oils and sweat, and I grimaced at the feel of it. "I'm going to have to ask that, if you want to know, you all keep it to yourselves. No one outside this room."

The big Asari continued to nibble on her bottom lip. "It's bad, isn't it?"

"When the old fish," Trena began, then paused to correct herself. For once there was no profanity, just brutal honesty. "When Aethyta T'Voth found out, she went berserk and tried to kill us both. It's something that _will_ mark you for death if people know you know it. Matriarch T'Ravt has already sent one Nightwind team to assassinate Cieran, if he hadn't faked his death to go to Omega... they weren't but a few days behind him."

Ayle's lips pressed together. "That's why you went by that false name... I had wondered why you bothered."

I nodded. "Yeah."

Four dark eyes blinked in sequence. "You're giving us an option?"

Another nod. "Either give me your word to not tell anyone, or please go back to sleep. I'll give you the same... cleaned up version I gave Mirala."

"Which was?" Voya asked, her head cocking a little bit as she licked her lips.

I waved a hand at the room. "For them to hear in the morning if they don't want the stupidly complicated version. Don't be hasty."

"I am not _hasty_." The Quarian growled, gleaming eyes narrowing.

"Don't blood rage then." I amended.

"Cie," Shyeel grabbed Voya's shoulder and hauled her back into the bed. "There's bystanders in here, remember?"

I snorted as she held the furious woman back. "Shy?"

"Call me Shy again and I'll join her in beating you until you're a bruised mess. And you already know the answer."

My lips twitched a little. "Ayle?"

The Batarian woman glanced at Thul, before her lips twitched a little. "Strength of arms can make one powerful, but the greatest weapon wielded by any warrior is information."

"Well said." The massive male chuckled quietly. "I always did like that passage. Miss Illyan, it would seem that you are the only person remaining?"

Said Asari was still chewing on her lip, then she sighed in a way that drew my eyes to her chest before I firmly forced myself to look elsewhere. Dammit, something had to be wrong with me, normally I didn't have any problems tuning out her... well, all of her. "I'll stay."

"You sure?" I asked quietly, averting my eyes away from where they'd landed on Ayle. Her shirt and shorts weren't nearly so revealing as Illyan's minimal outfit, but it was enough to remind me what lay beneath them. Maybe I was just too keyed up from the weird fight...

"Yeah. Who am I going to tell anyway boss? All my friends are in this room."

I snorted. "Good point."

After that, I should have started talking, started explaining. But now that the time had come... I found myself delaying. Leaning back against the wall at the head of my bed, I felt the cool metal through my shirt, and tried to focus on my breathing as I forced myself to pick through my words. Everyone gave me time, my head tilting left to thank them from the courtesy. After maybe five minutes I managed to gather myself enough to begin.

"Anad Krom." Even though the walls were sound-proofed, and Voya swept for bugs daily, I kept my voice low. "Means Zero-Nine. He choose it because it symbolizes his position as the ninth experiment of Cynthi T'Ravt. We know the names of experiments one through twelve, and who sixteen is. Our best guess is that there was at least seventeen, possibly more."

There wasn't anything wrong with most of their brains. Thul blinked a few times, then seemed to sag and let out a rumbling sigh. "And... which number are you, my friend?"

"Eleven." I told him quietly. "I was the eleventh attempt."

Illyan let out a chocking noise, sitting upright in a burst of motion. "You... _Matriarch Cynthi T'Ravt_ was the one who... who _did_ that to you?"

"She's the mysterious bitch." Trena confirmed. "Ape and I both picked her out from pictures, Sederis paid off the Broker to get them for us."

Ayle held up a hand as the big Asari kept sputtering. "Two questions. First, you said you know of the others. Who are they? Second, T'Ravt's sister. She implied that she was the one who attacked you both, but I didn't have the time to investigate her before..." The stump of her right arm moved slightly. "My injuries. What is known about her?"

"There are three of us alive, that I know of." I answered the first question first. "Myself, Krom, and Korolev. The one from Shepard's crew. There's also a brain-dead girl supposedly in a coma on Thessia, but I don't really count her. Probably a few others, but we three are the only ones I know for sure."

She nodded slightly. "And did this experimentation affect you all equally?"

"No." Trena shook her head, "We don't think Krom was as insane as he is now. Whatever that bitch did to him wasn't quite figured out yet, and it broke him. No idea how it affected Korolev, but we know she was supposed to be the 'chosen one', picked for some fucking important reason."

Another slight nod. "My second question?"

"She's a serious fucking big shot." Shyeel shook her head, eyes a little wild. "Famous for being a recluse and a giant bigot, but she runs one of the biggest political alliances in the Republics."

Both Batarians winced a little at the news, but Ayle kept speaking in relatively level tones. "And you are sure that she experimented on you? That she's the one who took your memories?"

"Took my actual memories." My left shoulder rolled in a shrug. "That she's the one who worked over my brain isn't the actual problem, it's the crap she injected into my head."

"She... what?" The Commander's voice failed as she stared blankly at me.

"She implanted false memories into his head." Voya supplied. "Making him believe he was from another dimension, where this universe was a piece of fiction. Which was why he never told anyone about it, at first. He didn't want to get locked into an asylum."

Shyeel glanced between Voya and I. "That would have happened?"

"He knew the Geth War was going to fucking happen, knew that human would get tapped to be a Spectre, knows when the things that killed the Protheans are coming back to get rid of us, crap like that." Trena supplied. "Oh, and there's a working Prothean Beacon in the fucking Temple of fucking Athame on fucking Thessia."

Illyan, who'd finally managed to recover, promptly started chocking on nothing again.

"She..." Thul swallowed, his normally stoic voice halting and stunned. "She..."

"Gave me knowledge of a potential future." I supplied for him. "A potential one only, things have already changed. Mostly because of Aethyta's actions, but Krom and I haven't exactly helped either."

Ayle stared at me, the only person able to keep a calm mask, though her tones weren't that far away from Thul's when she managed to speak again. "Proof?"

"At this point, I don't have much." I admitted quietly. "The big events, before things deviated, have already happened."

She nodded cautiously, then split her attention to Trena and Voya again. "You knew before the events occurred?"

"Yeah." Scales sighed. "And I'm the fucking idiot who told the old fish. Hence the ape and I not speaking for months on end."

"And me wanting to kill you." Voya muttered _sotto voce_.

I spoke before Trena could reply to that, "What _might_ have happened doesn't matter as much now. I think. Things are so far off course I'm not sure how valuable the information is except as a reference."

Ayle regarded me, then sucked in a hissing breath between her teeth and nodded. "Your word that this is true, please. To the extent of your knowledge."

I bowed my head deeply in submission to her. "I swear this is the truth as I know it Ayle."

Her inhalation was another long hiss. "I want to read that file."

"I have it on my tablet." Voya spoke for me, her voice firm. "We aren't giving out full copies of the data. Only read it in this room, with the door secured, after I've checked for bugs."

The seated woman blinked her upper set of eyes once, but nodded slightly. "If it is so dangerous as to inspire your former employer and friend to desire your death, I suppose I cannot blame you for being paranoid."

"You all right Illyan?" I glanced at the Asari on the floor, seeing her staring blankly at nothing.

"I..." She swallowed. "Just trying to process it boss."

An entirely understandable reaction, really. Shyeel didn't look that much better, but then again the two of them had probably had their mental ships capsized by the whole Temple of Athame thing. It wasn't everyday you were told your home nation, even if you didn't live there, was blatantly ignoring the laws it had created and enforced on everyone else.

"If the information is only useful as a reference," I glanced up as Thul spoke, his voice only slowly returning to its usually steady timbre. "Then we can likely leave it be to read at a more appropriate hour. What do you believe is immediately relevant?"

I sucked in a slow breath and started ticking things off on my fingers. "Couple of things really. One, implanting memories is supposed to be impossible. The potential future knowledge I have is barely even a percent of what's in my head, I have a full, impossibly full, lifetime of memories."

Shyeel grimaced. "Seriously?"

"I remember growing up on Earth. A father, a mother. High school, college, friends, girlfriends, pets, hobbies, jobs..."

"Shit." She hissed softly. "That's imposs... dammit, apparently it isn't huh?. But if she did that, the kind of meld, how long it would take... how _damaging_ it had to have been. I mean... by the goddess, how are you still _sane_?"

"No idea." I admitted, holding up two fingers as I moved on. "Two. She's not restricted to messing with humans. The four Batarians that jumped Mirala and I flipped when I asked who sent them. It took mortal wounds to bring them down, they shrugged off pain entirely."

The former priest winced. "You are sure?"

"I had my cane on me. I burned the leader's face to a melted mess, including all of his eyes, and he kept coming. If it hadn't blinded him I don't think it would have even slowed him down." Both he and Ayle flinched a little at the mention of eyes. "Yeah. Another broke his hand punching my armor, then pulled it back and tried to deck me again. Didn't even react even though I heard his bones cracking."

"Pillar of Kin preserve us." Thul murmured softly. "You say that implanting memories is impossible, yes? How could she have conditioned four of our people so?"

"Suppressing memories can be done, sure, or transferring them between two people in a deep bond." Shyeel supplied, her head shaking a little. "But even Matriarchs with centuries of experience in mind-healing have stated in medical journals that creating _new_ memories isn't possible. And even the ones transferred-"

"-don't last long." Trena shook her head. "At least, the complicated stuff. The insight and the basic shit stays, but the details are hard to keep straight even a couple of hours after. Need repeated melds to get it to stick. As to how she programmed them... shit, I have no idea. Rumor says the government does a combo-job on the Nightwind agents, suppressing their memories and barraging them with hypnotic shit to condition them. Supposed to takes years if it's true at all."

"Asari have time," Ayle growled quietly. "Compared to the rest of us. If she was intelligent enough to plan ahead, years would not be a problem. If she has wealth, she could have purchased an army's worth of lowborn slaves over years or decades."

It was my turn to grimace. "It's possible, and an idea we have to worry about now. As for the mental bit, she obviously did _something_ to them. Mirala was all but panicking at how they felt."

Scales blinked a couple of times. "How they felt?"

"She said they felt wrong, with a heavy emphasis on the wrong. And she wasn't..." I frowned, remembering. "She was almost panicking, like I said. Was desperate to get away from them, especially after I tripped whatever phrase they were programmed to respond to."

"That's not right." She shook her head. "She's a fucking demon ape. I can't imagine she'd get spooked by a couple of Batarians. No offense." Both Batarians present waved her off, and she continued. "Shit. Time to look up crap on Ardat-Yakshi, most of the shit I know is just hearsay and folktales. She might not even know all there is to know about her."

"Bounce a request to Sederis, can disguise it as needing to know about Mirala and the Night Sisters." I suggested. "And we've still got point number three to get to, and it's the most annoying one."

Voya grimaced, her forked tongue flicking over her lips again. "The why."

"Why. Why come after me now? She has to know Krom and I are trying to kill each other. Why the rush?" I had entirely discounted the idea that she actually wanted to me taken back alive. If that was true I'd have run into a few Nightwind agents, not some programmed thugs. Or maybe this was just a warning of what could happen if I _didn't_ voluntarily seek her out. Shit, I'd liked my life a lot better when she'd thought I was dead. "And one of them mentioned that I was better than what Korolev turned out to be, but what _was_ she supposed to be? What the fuck was she supposed to even _do_?"

"I believe we'd need to read your information to have any ideas there." Shyeel pointed out reasonably. "At least in regards to your final questions."

"That can be read later." Ayle shook her head firmly. "And the questions can be answered once we have had time to consider them, and to view the information you have compiled. Attempting to think on it now, while we're all half-conscious, will not get us anywhere."

"That only leaves what we need to prepare for more immediately." Thul provided. "That it is entirely possible that we will be attacked by sleeper agents, or Nightwind teams, at any given moment."

"I don't think it'll be _that_ bad." I shook my head a little. "If she was honestly serious about killing me I think she would have done it a long time ago. This was... I mean, four unarmed men? Even with what she did to them, unless they caught me entirely alone there wasn't much of a chance for success."

Shyeel nodded slowly. "But letting you know about them seems like an idiot's maneuver, and sending them after you while you're in the middle of a military campaign? A Nightwind team would at least have a sniper or three, could have tried to take you out in the middle of a fight."

"A Nightwind team would have a bitch of a time getting on this fucking rock." Trena rolled a shoulder in a shrug, then grabbed at her oversized robe when the motion nearly made it slide down her tiny body. "T'Ravt and her people are paranoid as shit about those bitches getting after her, they've got all kinds of checks in place if more than a pair of Asari spend too much time together. And the Matriarch never struck me as stupid, or someone to reveal more of her fucking cards than she absolutely had to."

Thul let out a slow breath. "A subordinate, perhaps? If she has followers, it would stand to reason that not all of them could be so intelligent. Killing you might have curried her favor, enough of a potential gain for them to risk activating four agents already on planet. Or dispatching them here covertly, four lowborn would hardly draw much attention."

"It would explain the oddity of the attack." I agreed, fighting back a yawn. "Of course whoever it was is probably drowning in the riptide right now."

"Good." Voya muttered. "But if that's true..."

"She's going to _have_ to come after me more seriously." I finished with a sigh. "Now that I know her mind-fuckery isn't limited to humans. But even so, I think she'll wait until the campaign is over. If Krom kills me she doesn't have to bother, and if we get Krom, she doesn't have to waste people going after him as well."

"You think?" Ayle blinked her lower set of eyes, then sighed through her teeth. "I suppose it's logical, and we aren't in a position where we can afford to be paranoid about everyone we meet. Though that will likely happen anyway now. You truly do complicate everything you touch, don't you?"

"He has a gift for it." Voya agreed.

I glared at them both in turn, but Illyan spoke up before I could say a word. "What if you're wrong, boss? About the Matriarch sending them I mean."

My lips pursed a little as I thought about that. "If she was the one who sent them... she would have been sending me a message, I guess."

Trena grimaced. "You've got a strong sense of self-preservation ape. Odds are that bitch knows it, she could be trying to manipulate you into doing some shit for her."

"Pointing out that she could have sleeper agents everywhere is quite the threat." Thul agreed. "But right now all we have are theories. We don't _know_ anything for certain beyond the fact that she has them. Perhaps for now it is simply best that we keep all of our eyes and minds open so that we do not draw incorrect conclusions."

Shyeel snorted. "You've met Cie right? I don't think he's capable of not trying to draw conclusions and figure crap out."

I glared at her. "Seriously? You're joining scales and Voya in the press gang?"

"You're just such an easy target." She gave me a grin that was all teeth. "Maybe I"ll take your side again if you start using my actual name."

A low, rumbling chuckle came from the only Batarian male present. "With your permissions, I believe I will return to my room. Perhaps we could schedule a meeting to go over the documentation? After the next raid perhaps?"

I glanced at Ayle, who frowned for a moment before nodding. "If we can arrange it, I would like for all of us to have read your document within the next few weeks. One at a time, so as not to draw the other's attention that something is wrong. We can have another meeting like this after the raiding operations are complete and we are on leave."

With a plan more or less established, our little get-together broke up. Thul bowed his head politely to us all, Ayle and I returning the gesture, before heading back to his own room to get some more sleep. To my surprise Voya got up next, muttering that it was time for breakfast anyway. Shyeel's expression became almost lustful at the word 'food', and the pair of them ducked out after him.

"Come on Illyan. I need a shower and company would be good." Trena helped to haul the big Asari to her feet, pulling the still shell-shocked looking woman out with her as she spoke. "Especially since you're only having sex with me or Shyeel until we're sure you can keep these memories in a box beneath the waves."

After the door had slid shut behind them, it was just Ayle and I remaining. Though her posture was collected and calm, I didn't miss the slight tightness around her dark eyes as all four of them stayed locked onto my face.

"I would give you an excuse about telling technical truths," I spoke quietly into the silence, maybe three or four minutes later. "But I don't think you'd appreciate it."

"No, I wouldn't." She agreed, her voice level. "Normally I would be... quite furious with you, for lying to me about your past. But given the situation I am attempting to be more understanding."

"Thank you."

"You are welcome." A slow exhale escaped her as she rose, padding across the floor before batting at my legs with her single hand. I moved them, and she settled onto the side of my bunk where they'd just been. "How did Voya take it, when you told her?"

"Poorly, at first. Better after I admitted I never even told Rane."

Her lower eyes blinked. "You.. didn't tell her?"

"No." I admitted quietly. "I... guess I was kind of hoping things wouldn't happen. I think I would have, if she'd lived. If we'd gone back to Illium like we planned."

"That was rather stupid of you." She pointed out, though her low voice wasn't unkind. Merely truthful.

"Wasn't it?" I sighed. "Humans say hindsight is twenty twenty. Means it's always easier to figure out what you fucked up after it's already done with, and what you should have done instead. I've got a lot of those things figured out at this point."

Ayle reached out and flicked my sternum with a finger. "Batarians have a saying as well, I would have thought you knew it. One cannot refill a river that the desert has claimed, but instead must seek a new river and enjoy its waters while they last."

"Knowing it doesn't mean I'm any good at following its advice."

Her lips twitched a little. "You are rather dense, sometimes."

I glowered at her. "Ayle."

"Perhaps less so than most humans, at least." She amended with an apologetic little tilt to her head. "And you seem to be doing better, as of late. Speaking with Miss Chang about your life has been helping you."

"I guess." My left shoulder rose and fell. "I'm not telling her everything but... yeah, I guess it's a little relieving just to talk about some of the crap that's happened. Think about it and reprocess it."

"Does it help you sleep?" When I merely shrugged again, she sighed. "Still. Some progress is better than none. Did you know that Illyan believes that Chang desires you?"

My eyes rolled. "Yes, and she doesn't."

She blinked. "How do you know?"

"First, because she looks at everyone who might have a story the way Illyan thinks she looks at me. Second, because I asked her about it just to be sure, and she's got an Asari girlfriend."

"Ah." Ayle nodded slightly. "You are sure of that?"

"She carries a picture around with her, of the two of them." I shrugged. "Besides, I like her well enough but not like that."

"You prefer beings such as myself or Illyan." She supplied, her lips curing a bit. "I did not miss your embarrassed glances."

I had the decency to flush a little. "It's been... shit, six months already?"

"Unless you and Voya have elected to progress your relationship beyond friendship, or have availed yourself to Illyan." When I shook my head twice, she nodded slightly. "I did not think so. Are you still wracked with guilt about what we did?"

My lips pursed a little, voice going quiet. "Sometimes."

Four black eyes stared at me, and then she shook her head almost fondly. "You really are a noble human idiot, you know this yes?"

"You've said that before." I pointed out.

"Because it's entirely true." She sighed. "Though I will admit to being... relieved that I am still desirable to you, despite everything." Despite her right arm being cut off just below the shoulder, and the scaring around her leg on that side where the myomer muscles had been inserted to replace living issue. "Would it hurt to ask if you wished me to stay, for a while?"

The room suddenly felt a bit warm. This... wasn't where I'd thought this particular conversation was going to go. "I thought... we wouldn't, again."

"I had not intended to, but I find myself fondly remembering that observation deck. And what you did to me upon it." I swallowed as the same memories came back. "And it has been six months for me, as well."

"Yeah, but... shit. Ayle, I'm not any less conflicted or less over Rane now than I was then."

She regarded me thoughtfully for several moments. "I am not asking for a relationship, or love. I did say as much last time, and will say it again. You are my friend, and I am fond of you, but I believe we would kill each other if we tried to live in the same room."

I couldn't help but snort, but found my eyes lowering as she casually tilted her head to the right, silently asserting her dominance. "Ayle..."

"One pleasant morning together, Cie." Her voice was a lazy, commanding growl that sent a thrum through my body. The bed shifted as she moved a bit closer, and my head lowered to the left to expose the right side of my neck to her. "But if you tell me to stop and leave, I will do so."

A good man, one loyal to memories of a lost love, would have. He'd have thanked her for her interest, would have kept his self control in check, and would have done the noble and proper thing.

I, apparently, was not such a man.

* * *

_**Next up is Interlude IX: Fallen Paragons** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A heavy discussion chapter, going over what Cieran feels that his friends deserve to know given the changing situation.
> 
> Moving ahead, there's been a rather large change to the story. After thinking about it for a while, and talking with the Blocked Writer, I came to the realization that Vengeance's outline wasn't good enough. The story itself was rushed, even with it's massive planned length, and so a few changes were in order. Instead of a 71+ chapter story, Vengeance is now going to end relatively soon and its second half is going to become a new story, dividing the war into a pair of fics rather than trying to force it into one monstrosity.
> 
> This is letting me slide in more operations to cover some rather important events I was going to have to try and summarize, and also bringing this story more into line with the others in terms of overall length. The events in the prologue of Vengeance will still be taking place, but near the end of the new AR:V instead of at the end of this story. Cieran's final love interest will also be waiting to be confirmed until one of the final scenes of the new AR:V.
> 
> The side-story, Those Who Fight - Vengeance edition, will also wrap up soon, with a short-story about the Chosen One put in along with another report on Shepard to cover what both of them are up to throughout the rest of 2183, plus expanding on just who Korolev is.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	34. Interlude IX: Fallen Paragons

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

**Interlude IX: Fallen Paragons**

_Date: 08-14-2183_

_Location: Hintertown, Redcliffe, Feralda System, Northern Terminus_

* * *

"How many days of shore leave?" Trena groaned from the couch, her small body sprawled back while she used Illyan's lap as a pillow. The big Asari didn't seem to mind given that she was slumped over and already asleep.

"Twenty seven." I let my body sink back into my own chair, trying to relax as best as my armor would allow. I'd have taken the crap off but I had a meeting with Jarrick over at the Intelligence building in an hour. "Twenty seven days of drinking, repairing crap, and trying not to think about fighting our way to the capital."

Another tired groan answered that. "Don't forget the fucking. Lots of that."

"For you, that goes unsaid." I sighed, relaxing my neck for once and letting my head sink back against the headrest behind me. "Just keep it to the bedrooms."

"So long as you and ul Massa do the same." She shimmied a bit to get more comfortable. "I don't need to see you two like that."

I forced my eyes to stay open so I could glare at her. "That was one time... well, twice, but it probably won't happen again for a while."

"By the goddess ape... she's willing, you obviously enjoy it, stop moralizing so much. Shit, neither of you wants the other for a bondmate so you can stop at anytime and she won't take it personally. Why _not_ go to her bed whenever you want?"

The fingers on my left hand twitched a little, and my glare shifted to my own hand. "Rane was killed in front of me, Trena."

Gem colored eyes flicked up to my face for several breaths, then she sighed. "I know, Cie. But the two weeks or so after you two had your morning fling you were almost normal."

I tried not to flinch at that. "So what, you think I should sleep with her every other week?"

"Of course not," Trena scoffed. "You should fuck her senseless every night."

Since I'd more or less walked right into that one, I just sighed and let my eyes fall closed. "Scales..."

"Fine, I'll shut up about that crap for now." I heard her sigh again. "What about you and the little bitch?"

I cracked an eye open and stared at her, then glanced up and behind the couch.

Trena blinked a few times, then seemed to shrink. "She's behind the couch, isn't she?"

"Yes." Voya growled, already in her armor but with her helmet dangling from a strap on her belt. "I am. Cie, I'm not going to be responsible for what I do to this _little bitch_ if she calls me that one more time."

Trena's lips became little more than a thin line, but she kept them shut when I gave her a mild glare. "She was just about to stop calling you anything but your name."

My elder friend looked like she'd just bitten into something foul, but she forced her head to jerk once. "Fine ape."

I flicked my eyes between the two of them when Voya simply settled her arms across her small chest and kept glaring down her nose at Trena. "What do you know, she _can_ be trained."

The Asari's upper lip peeled back in a snarl. "Oh you didn't just-"

Illyan's hand clapped over her mouth before she could continue, her chest heaving in an exhausted sigh. She didn't even bother opening her eyes as she sleepily rumbled, "Too. Loud."

Trena grunted, tapping the arm gently to show that she'd heard her. After a few moments, Illyan let her hand fall away, and Scales lowered her voice. "Well what about you two?"

"What about us?" I flicked a glance up to Voya, and as surprised to see her glaring venom at both Asari. "Voya?"

"They think we _like_ each other." Her voice was little more than a growl. "They've been annoying me about being 'in denial'for a month now."

My brain tried to compute that statement, divided by zero somewhere in the process, and went entirely blank for a few long breaths before it lurched back into motion.

Me and Voya? _Together_? The idea was... somewhere between baffling and horrifying. I liked the woman to death, but not in a way where I'd want to take her to bed with me. In the carnal sense, anyway. We did still occasionally ended up in each others beds if the nightmares became severe enough but that was strictly platonic and supportive. Not that she was ugly or anything, but she was... she was _Voya._ It would be like if someone asked me if I wanted to have sex with Trena.

"Exactly!" Voya nodded at my expression. "We are friends who both think the other is unattractive."

"Denial." Illyan breathed, still not opening her eyes.

I glowered at her. "There's nothing between me and Voya."

"Also in denial." She yawned massively. "Don't you have a meeting boss?"

"Yes." A muscle in my cheek twitched, and I reigned in the urge to not beat the two Asari into purple colored pulps. "In forty five minutes, but I think the Intelligence staff will be less annoying company at this point."

A large hand waved blearily, one eye cracking open to a slit. "Tell Jarrick he needs to stop overworking himself. Miss him."

"You just miss his cooking." Voya muttered, pulling her helmet off of her belt and sliding it on. "Anyone else coming?"

"Ayle's meeting with Kaste, everyone else is passed out or already started on leave." I would have been in the latter group, if not for this stupid meeting. I just hoped that the kid had good news for once, it had sounded like it. "So just us. He was excited enough, maybe they've got a lead."

"They'd better." The Quarian growled quietly, stepping towards the door. "Illyan, do me a favor and kill the little bitch in your sleep?"

"Sure." Illyan was already half-asleep again, slumping back over and probably not aware of what she was agreeing to. "Why not."

"Bitch!" Trena tried to get up, her expression thoroughly annoyed, only to squawk when her pillow yanked her back down and put a broad hand over her mouth again.

"Too loud. Time to sleep."

Scales tried to protest that unilateral statement, struggling as best she could against the thick arm holding her down. After a few moments of trying to breathe around the hand over her mouth, she slumped back in evident surrender.

Snorting quietly, I rose with a tired groan. "Come on Voya, let's go see what Jarrick and the Intelligence types want. Sleep well Illyan."

The big Asari mumbled something, hauling Trena around like she was nothing more than a toy until she was nearly smothering the smaller woman. Shaking my head bemusedly, I grabbed my helmet from the kitchen table before following Voya to the door. Making sure to seal myself up before stepping out into the boiling desert heat, we darted through the entryway and let the door shut as quickly as we could to avoid letting too much of the cold air out.

Well, I did anyway. Voya would have probably locked the door open and cut windows into the walls just to torture them both if she could.

I couldn't help but sigh as we set off on the dusty road, my Quarian friend falling into her familiar position on my left. Not quite pressed into my side, the crowd of soldiers was rather sparse, but close enough that either of us could drag the other to the ground if we saw a threat.

"I still have no idea how you actually like that bitch." She spoke across our private line a few minutes into our walk, her voice annoyed.

"She has no idea how I like you either." I pointed out. "Mutual incomprehension, proof that you have something in common beyond your diminutive statures."

There was a strangled, half-disgusted half-furious noise. "I am of _normal_ height. That bitch is the one who's short."

"I can look over your head, that makes you both short. Goddess. What is it with my friends and not being able to stand each other? First Nynsi and Trena. Then you and Illyan. Now you and Trena."

"Because three of the people you mentioned are idiots?" She paused for a moment then added in a low tone. "If you even think about implying I'm one of those three I'm going to cut something off of you."

"Always with the physical threats... hey, that's another thing you and Trena have in common."

This time the disgust in her voice was perfectly clear. "I'm going to strangle you in your sleep."

"There's a problem with that plan." I pointed out. "The whole sleep part."

She was silent for several steps, letting me hear a shuttle's engines whining somewhere nearby. When she did speak again, her voice was low and quiet. "You can't keep going like this, Cieran. You sleep maybe three or four hours a day."

"I'm surviving."

"By keeping yourself awake with stims." She growled. "I can't cover for you forever, I think the big idiot might have already noticed. You're lucky the little bitch thought you were acting normally just because you fucked Ayle."

My lips pressed together a bit, my pace slowing. "I only use them when I need them. It's not an every day thing."

"Which is the only reason I haven't bashed your head into a wall." Her armored frame shook with a tight exhale. "You don't need to be addicted to something else Cie."

"What else am I going to do?" I asked tiredly. "If I don't take the stupid things I'm going to collapse in the middle of a briefing or a fight. Chehala doesn't work anymore. The leaves plus alcohol doesn't work anymore. The only time I sleep is after a battle, and usually then only on the damned shuttle."

"If I knew what to do to make us better I would have already done it." She muttered irritably. "Killing Krom will make things better than they are now right?"

"Probably, but that isn't a terribly _high_ bar to hit." My lips twitched a little as I shrugged, changing the topic subtly to something hopefully less depressing. Although it would probably be more violent. "But we could always drink a _small_ amount of booze to make ourselves feel better."

Glowing eyes blinked behind her mask. "We'd need more than a small...You are an asshole."

I rolled my shoulder modestly. "I try to be above such _low_ behavior."

Her hands twitched towards her belt. "I am _not_ short, and if you infer that again I'm going to cut your throat."

"That would be a far _larger_ threat if I was sitting down."

"No one would blame me." Voya's voice became little more than a growl, and it was obvious she was mostly talking to herself. "Not even Ayle. We're surrounded by the desert. I could hide the body anywhere."

I nodded. "Quite right, it would be difficult to find such a comparatively _tiny_ thing."

Her fingers were very much twitching, almost trying to caress the light pistol on her belt. "Don't have my knives, be hard to dismember him. Could always find a jagged piece of metal and use that instead."

"There's no _shortage_ of those around." I agreed pleasantly, entirely having too much fun needling her at that point. "And it wouldn't be hard for you to _lower_ yoursel-"

She tackled me mid-word, both of us rolling through the dust and sand as small fists pounded at my armored body. I tried to buck her off only for her to use her stupidly strong legs to wrap around my wait to anchor herself. We flailed to a stop with her above me, trying to throw punches at the less-armored joints and at my throat. I snapped my arms up to protect the latter, cackling to myself as I did.

Shit. It had been far too long since I'd annoyed someone to the point of snapping. I'd forgotten how fun it was.

Voya, evidently, didn't share my pleasure, because my laughter made her start snarling as she kept at it. "Stupid! _Kallasha_! _Bosh'tet_! Asshole!"

Around us, I could hear soldiers gathering and laughing, bets being shouted out as a ring formed with us in the center. I didn't really see the point, amused or not, I was more or less stuck stopping her from trying to choke me out. If I made any real attempt to counter-attack she was more than quick enough to get to my throat. Being tall and lanky was only an advantage when I was upright. When I was stuck on my back left me at the mercy of her lithe frame.

Between her cursing, the crashing clatter of armored fists hitting my arm guards, and the shouting and laughing crowd, I didn't hear the first explosion.

Voya did, because she abruptly stopped and jerked herself upright, her helmet whipping left and then right. I blinked at the sudden cessation of violence, cautiously glancing between my arms to see what was going on without lowering my guard. The crowd had gone silent as well, which let me clearly hear the second blast and the sudden roar of gunfire that accompanied it.

It wasn't a steady clattering sound either, it was the continuous torrent of panic-fire.

I had no idea how we got untangled and upright as rapidly as we did, and my heavily modified Executioner was in my hand before I was conscious of drawing it. "Where!?"

"Towards headquarters." Voya snapped, jerking her head in that direction. My head whipped around in time to see explosion number three flash upwards, dark smoke billowing into the sky as another pair of too-low flying shuttles whipped over our heads.

One of them had its doors open... and I could see a massive form wielding a war-hammer leap out of the vehicle as if it wasn't twenty meters up.

"Oh shit..." My memory ran through how many other shuttles I'd heard on low passes on our short walk, and didn't like the tally I came up with. No cane, but I had my standard tech launcher on my belt. That and my hand cannon would have to do. "Come on!"

Voya already had her own gun up and ready, and we got moving in that direction as rapidly as we could.

The crowd had already begun to disperse, maybe a dozen armored forms moving in the same direction as us, having likely also seen the enhanced Krogan electing to take the express route rather than wait for his craft to land. Nearly everyone else was in plain clothes, or as few clothes as they could get away with given the heat, and were darting in other directions. Probably rushing back to their barracks to grab their armor. They all had guns, at least. That bit of discipline at least giving them a chance to fight if it came to it.

Dammit. I couldn't even blame them for not having armor on. It was fucking hot out, and we were _way_ behind the front lines. Why the fuck hadn't the combat air patrol noticed the shuttles? Much less the fucking radar operatives!

"Merc!" I glanced left as another Terminus Quarian shouted at me, a necklace of Vorcha teeth clacking against his heavy armor as he kept up with us. He had a _lot_ of them, enough that I could hear them rustling as we ran. "Lieutenant Nar'sial!"

"Kean!" I shouted back. "Plan?"

Heaving his carbine up onto a shoulder, he waved his free hand at my belt. "That thing have incinerates?"

"Of course!" I dodged around a concussed and stumbling Batarian as we crossed the next street, the sounds of screams, deep bellows of rage, and the chaotic bursts of gunfire rising as we headed closer to the apparent battle. "You pin him down, we kill him?"

"Works for me!"

Darting between a pair of storage huts, I skidded to a stop in the next street, barely avoiding tripping over the crushed remains of a Turian as I did so. The adrenaline rush hit me as I caught sight of the chaotic engagement, letting me feel like I had all the time in the galaxy to examine the situation.

The berserker was ten, fifteen meters away, with his back turned to me. Gleaming orange omni-panels surrounded his heavy frame, his war-hammer already coated in blood as he swung it wildly about. A Turian dove to the ground to avoid the fate that had befallen maybe ten others already, his white armor becoming coated in sand and dirt as he frantically rolled away.

And he was... a lot fucking bigger than I was, without my power armor.

There were maybe a dozen other soldiers still upright, mostly backpedaling as quickly as they could to open the range, their guns sending sparks off of the enhanced's barriers and armor as they fired. One of the rounds missed wide, and actually skipped off the shields over my shoulder and jerked my awareness back to where it was supposed to be.

Snarling to remind myself that I wasn't in my fucking power armor, that I couldn't take my time and act like the heavy, I burst back into motion, keeping my voice low as I called back. "Hold fire!"

The Lieutenant was right behind me, his gleaming eyes taking in the same scene before nodding and repeating the order down the line. "Hold fire, move out and take position!"

If Okeer's prototypes had a problem, it is was in what we called them: Berserkers. They fell into the blood rage all too easily, and became tactically blind as a result.

A good dozen of us had gotten out into the street, falling into a loose shooting line with me and Voya in the center and back a bit, before one of his wild swings, _still_ trying to hit the scrambling Turian who was screaming insults at the top of his lungs, brought us into his view.

The nice thing about working with combat veterans is that they don't waste time waiting for orders when something perfectly obvious needs to happen.

Voya and I started hurling incinerates as fast as our launchers could fling them, everyone else opening fire at full automatic to help hammer his barriers down enough for the explosives to do their job. Behind him, I could see the survivors from his initial rampage rally, their own shots joining in as we fought to bring the massive creature down.

The Krogan staggered as the bullets pummeled him, another ear-shattering bellow of rage sounding as he pushed off and began to pick up speed. The first mines began to hit him around then, flashes of red and orange wreathing him in fire. Each explosion drew more pained roars, orange blood flying into the air as shots began to find weak points exposed by the detonations.

Even with nearly twenty guns blazing away, and about eight mines between Voya and I, the fucker still managed to cross half the distance before stumbling once, twice, and then falling with a crash.

The shooting kept on for several seconds, the soldiers on either side of us shifting their aim to his cracked helmet just to be sure that it was actually dead.

"Hold, hold!" Nar'sial held a fist up, and the shooting obediently died down. "You two, go check it."

As a pair of privates moved forwards, I was abruptly aware that the corner of my small HUD was flashing irritably, demanding I accept a communications line. "Kean."

" _Cie!"_ Ayle's voice was sharp, " _Where the fuck are you!?"_

"Row Fifteen, there was a berserker." More gunfire rose, coinciding with the slow howling of the general alarm as someone finally had the good sense to activate it. "Sitrep?"

" _There's at least a dozen more of those enhanced things running around, causing chaos. The Pillar of Knowledge alone knows how many regular troops are coming in on those fucking shuttles."_ Someone, it sounded like Kaste, bellowed orders in the background _. "Half the unit is in the city, I'm recalling them now. T'Laria has the remainder, she's getting Dietrich into his armor. I need you to meet them at the Intelligence building!"_

"Intelligence building," I grunted. "We'll get there and keep the kid alive."

" _And Mascal."_ Ayle's tone became grim, " _Jarrick had just messaged me, saying the General was on his way to be briefed along with you. We can't raise anyone in that area, there's a jammer in place."_

"Athame's motherfucking... we're moving!" Cutting the line, I spun around to the Lieutenant. "The General is at the intel building, we've lost contact. You in?"

Glowing eyes widened, then he shook himself and nodded. "We're in. Everyone form up! Heading to headquarters!"

One of the Turians glanced at us, "Army or regimental sir?"

"Army!" He snapped. "Get regimental online, we need everyone on leave back into this compound! And get some medics directed to this location, you stay and keep the wounded protected until they get here!"

The private jerked his head in a nod, his omni-tool flashing to life as he moved to follow that order. Everyone else quickly began to form up in a loose formation as we set off again, our pace a quick jog. Well, a quick jog for me and the Batarians present. The Turians probably thought it slow, and the Quarians were all but running.

I spoke with Ayle as we moved, my eyes constantly moving to check corners and trying to track the fighting by the sound of it. "Traitor had to be responsible. Had to be. How many people in the complex?"

" _Ten regiments in reserve, five on leave."_ She reported with a growl. " _All of the reserve units are on perimeter locations, or patrolling the city. A few thousand should be present, but they won't be ready for this kind of attack."_

"They shouldn't have fucking needed to be." I snarled. "Who the fuck missed those shuttles?"

" _They're broadcasting proper IFF codes."_ A furious hiss escaped her. " _Supports your traitor theory. The CAP commander buzzed them, they responded with the right counter-sign to his challenge."_

Son of a fucking bitch, I loped over a wounded human, barely listening as Nar'sial tasked another grunt to get him to a medic. We replaced him within a few yards, two Batarian women yanking the last pieces of their armor on as they darted out of a prefab. "Those are changed daily right?"

" _Every mission."_ Ayle corrected me _. "They were running with the Fifty-Seventh Xenthan's codes. They were due back for a recovery phase but got caught up in a skirmish this morning. They're still on the other continent fighting."_

I swore again as the wave hit the beach. The traitor had to be someone on the communications team, just like we'd thought, someone senior. They'd have known the mission return password, and would have known that the regiment wasn't going to be coming back today as scheduled. All they had to do was pass on the codes and not bother reporting the change of plans. The shuttles themselves were easier, probably having been stolen or captured over the months of warfare.

"How many-fuck!" A Turian private had gotten ahead of me, wordlessly volunteering to take point. She'd been about to turn onto the main throughway, the intelligence center maybe four blocks away, when something had slammed into her stomach with enough force to shatter her barriers and sent fragments of armor flying.

Grabbing her by the collar as she fell, I hauled her screeching form back around the prefab mess hall we'd been cornering. A pair of Batarians swiftly took her from me, holding her down as they began yanking medigel packets off their belts.

Leaving them to it, I shifted right up to the corner, took a quick breath, and then glanced around for a brief second before yanking my head back a half-breath before a heavy sniper round tore through the air where it had just been.

"Shit!" I twitched reflexively deeper into the cover. "Nar'sial, please tell me one of you has smoke grenades!"

"You want me to lie to you then!?"

"Shit!" I swore again, trying to replicate a mental map of the local area. I hadn't spent enough time in this area, not like the part of the complex near our prefab, so it wasn't the best. "Ideas?"

The Quarian glanced at the corner, then rubbernecked around rapidly as he visibly ran through our options. "Only building they could be on is intel, it's three stories, nothing nearby is taller than one. If we double-back and cut through the mess halls we can avoid their line of sight."

I nodded, and he shouted quick orders. Our column, sans a pair of men who the Lieutenant volunteered to stand point at the corner, reversed direction. Voya and I stuck with the officer, following him back and then into the building. It was a standard issue mess hall, bench tables, a buffet style kitchen off to one side, the usual.

We ran through it in a chorus of clattering metal and ceramics, sliding to stops near the doors on the far side. A private jerked his head out in a quick check, then another, then waved us on. From there, we moved across the sand covered street and into an identical hall, just as empty and unused as the prior. The next street wasn't empty. Bodies, maybe a dozen dead soldiers to go with several still forms wearing the armor of a pirate lord who'd thrown in with the Blood Pack, plus a single unmoving Krogan.

I slowed my pace slightly, letting a pair of troops move past as I examined the battlefield. "Circular... lots of damage on the ground."

Voya grunted, tapping me on the side to get me moving again. "Someone landed here."

"Firing down from the shuttle as they came in." I agreed quietly. Maybe half the dead hadn't even drawn their weapons, they would have seen the shuttle's paint scheme and assumed it was a friendly until it was too late. "Poor bastards."

My friend didn't seem to think such an obvious statement merited a comment, instead lengthening her strides a bit to keep up with everyone else. We'd apparently picked up another several soldiers who'd been firing blindly around this street corner, in the same direction as the unseen sniper. I could see another two or three bodies in the street where they'd tried to move up before falling.

At least two of them had the good sense to stay where they were, still pointlessly blasting away to try and distract the enemy.

Goddess but I liked working with professionals, and I made sure to glance around until I located the unit patches on the men and women around me. The One-Eleventh. I'd have to keep track of them.

Our makeshift platoon crossed the second street and started filing down alleyways in between a pair of storage sheds, both still locked up tightly with whatever it was they held. Hopefully not explosives.

 _That_ paranoid thought nearly made me break into a sprint before I reined the fear in and forced my body to remain under my conscious control. But on the bright side it kept the adrenaline flowing.

I had reason to be grateful for that, sooner than I would have liked.

I'd just been about to step out onto the next street when there was an explosion above and to our right, the roar of a fighter tearing overhead hot behind it. Jerking my gaze up, I saw the blur of it streak by before I was entirely focused on the other aircraft descending rapidly towards us, smoke bellowing out from the heavy shuttle as the pilot desperately tried to keep it blunt nose up.

My voice joined a dozen others, everyone yelling at everyone else to get the fuck out of the road before the thing hit the ground.

It hit maybe three blocks down from us, smashing into the ground with a roar of tortured metal and straining engines, then bounced back into the air. It skipped off the sandy road another time before streaking past us, the wind of its passage driving Voya back against me, our curses inaudible over the commotion.

Helping to hold her up, I jerked my head back into the open in time to see the vehicle come to a final, skidding landing that left it broadside to us not more than forty meters down. The missile had hit its rear, most of the main engine was little more than burning confetti, but the cargo bay and cockpit were still intact.

"Surround it!" Nar'sial barked, pushing himself off of the wall he'd stumbled against. "Cover the target!"

More than a few of the soldiers were shell-shocked by what had just happened, but they started stumbling in the right directions. Voya and I moved mostly on reflex, her darting past me and sliding into a shooter's crouch just at the corner of the building, while I moved right up next to her, my left side covered by the building while I shifted my gun into line above her.

We'd barely gotten settled, and most of the troops were still recovering, when the shuttle's cracked door sprung upwards and open, and the enemy came out shooting.

Two broad Krogan, heavy shields upraised, lumbered out and slammed the walls of metal into the ground even as a blizzard of gunshots began to ring off of the armor. Shotguns set into notches began to boom back at us, sending a Batarian in white to the ground to be dragged behind another cargo shed by two of his companions.

Behind the bulky enemies, I could barely make out several smaller forms, though they were not moving all that quickly. They had to have been equally, if not more, shooken up by the crash than we'd been, and were letting the Krogan buy them time to recover.

"They're copying you!" Voya snarled as she shot at them, accusation in her voice. "How would you fight you!?"

"Angled tech mines!" I shouted back, holding my own fire to save on heat. "Incinerates, mortar angles!"

Her omni-tool lit up a few breaths after mine, and we both got to work as quickly as we could. It was a simple thing to lock onto a normal target and fling a mine, programming one to fly a specific course was less so. Their tiny engines were only so powerful, and our omni-tools needed to adjust for crap like wind and air resistance and distance and a hundred other tiny, annoying details.

Mine found its firing solution before hers, the orange disc streaking out of the launcher at my side and shooting almost straight up. It hung there for several moments, then curved in an elegant arc and came spinning back towards the ground.

The right-hand Krogan had seen it, and evidently tracked it, because he hauled his shield up just before it exploded above his head. His companion hadn't, and bellowed in surprise when the fire lashed at his armor, a sound echoed by the other as his now-vulnerable body was hammered by incoming fire before he got the shield back down.

He'd barely done so before Voya's mine was up and away. A brief flash of orange drove them apart, disrupting their attempt at a shield-wall. More rounds found them before they got their protection back into place. Our second set of explosives launched more or less at the same time, detonating in a double-clap as the left-side Krogan dropped his shield, howling in pain.

The soldiers put him out of his misery adroitly enough, tracer rounds easily punching through his broken armor and burning skin.

"Move up! Get some grenades in there!" Lieutenant Nar'sial evidently didn't lack for personal courage, moving past the both of us, his rifle barking as he tried to shoot around the remaining Krogan. His men followed him, Voya and holding off on anymore mines as the impromptu advance became a full-out charge.

My companion was ready to follow them before I grabbed her by the shoulder and kept her firmly in place.

Grenades sailed out from several of the running soldiers, exploding with dull thuds and drawing screams from inside the downed craft. The remaining Krogan bellowed a wounded challenge, cutting one man down with a blast from his shotgun, then smashing another away with his shield.

The Lieutenant didn't let him get any further, the Quarian man, looking even smaller next to the massive alien, ducked inside his guard and shoved his weapon in between two broken plates of armor and started shooting. His foe screamed in fury, the sound growing when a Turian dropped his own weapon in favor of grabbing the Krogan's and hauling back on it, stopping him from simply shooting down the officer.

Nar'sial kept shooting until the Krogan dropped to his knees, jumping back in time to avoid being crushed as it fell the rest of the way.

"I wanted one of their crests." Voya muttered as she, stepping into the street and starting to move forwards. "Why did you hold me back?"

I snorted, keeping my weapon low but ready as I followed her. "Because running at the enemy in the open like that is stupid?"

"You do it all the time."

"In power armor." I pointed out, half-watching as another grenade was lobbed into the dead shuttle, the low _whump_ not drawing any more screams. "We need to get organized and moving again, who the fuck knows what's-"

" _Cieran!_ " Ayle's voice cracked across the radio, and I winced at the noise. " _Location and sitrep!"_

"Eighteenth and Delta, shuttle damn near killed us by crashing, we had to deal with the occupants."

" _T'Laria has reached the intel building, it's been breached."_

The urgency in her voice was clear, and I swore. "We're moving. Lieutenant, we're out of time!"

The Terminus Quarian had already been trying to get everything organized again, and my words drew several additional oaths. One of his people moved around the shuttle, exposing himself bravely if stupidly, and then waved for everyone when he didn't have his head taken off by the sniper.

"There's fighting at the doors, a merc team I think!" The Turian shouted, his long legs already propelling him forwards.

Grunting, I accelerated as well, tearing down the street and towards the corner as I switched channels. "Scales, sitrep?"

" _Just fought our way inside!"_ There was a snarl, followed by a roar of a sub-machine gun. " _Lots of pirate fuckers!"_

"We have contact with anyone inside?" I'd barely asked the question when my small HUD flashed, indicating a new channel had just been spliced into ours.

" _Reyja'krem."_ General Mascal's voice had a cold, practical fury, his words punctuated with gunfire and screams. " _We've retaken the control room and deactivated the communication jammer, but we are pinned down."_

"What do you need?"

" _The force at the front entrance to continue pushing. There's several secondary entrances around the building's sides, they can't have the manpower to defend them all."_

"Got it. Nar'sial, you hear that?"

"I did." He slowed up enough for me to catch him as I rounded the corner, our target building coming into view as we did. It was a low, squat structure, basically a two story box that loomed over the smaller buildings around it. I could see Dietrich's power armor looming in front of the doorway, Illyan's tall form the only other recognizable person at this distance. There was maybe thirty soldiers with them, and maybe twice that number of bodies on the ground.

"Sergeant! Take half our people, and a squad of those idiots who are just letting the mercs do the work, and head right. Detail a team to breach every door on your way."

The Batarian gave him a deep leftward bow of his head, not easy to do at a full run, then started barking orders. We crossed the remaining distance in under a minute, and I didn't slow down as Nar'sial started screaming at the loitering second-rate troops to get their shit together.

One of their officers started shouting back, telling him how many casualties they'd lost in the last rush. Nar'sial reply wasn't complimentary, or anatomically probable, but it did get a few more troops moving in our direction.

"Which door are we taking?" Voya asked as we moved around the argument, a half-dozen soldiers following us. Her omni-tool was lit and in front of her, a map barely visible with all of the motion. "We've got four on this side."

Four doors but not all that many of us, and Mascal hadn't sounded like he was in a good position. Fuck, I could only hope that Jarrick was all right. I glanced at the trooper next to me, a Batarian with a sergeant's markings on her shoulder. "Your team good for the first door?"

"Yes Reyja'krem." She turned out to be a she, her head bowing low as we moved. "We'll handle it."

"Thank you." I wasn't as good about shifting my head appropriately on the run, but I did my best. The Sergeant and the others slowed to a halt near the door, splitting up into two groups on either side of it.

Leaving them to it, Voya and I found the next service entrance maybe five meters down. She took the control panel while I moved to the other side, lowering my gun to cover us as she entered the general access code.

It opened at the command, and not to a barrage of gunfire, both of which were vaguely surprising.

Holding up my free left hand, I signed a few terse words, telling her to trail and cover me. She nodded and we moved inside slowly, and carefully. As much as I wanted to check on the kid, and Mascal I supposed, we wouldn't do them any good if we ran into a trap and ended up dead.

We moved into the service hall, a short thing that wasn't more than a couple of meters long, ending in another sealed door.

Cautiously moving up, I used my left hand to tap the next set of controls, letting it slide open. My gun was already up, and I yanked the trigger on reflex on seeing a Vorcha stumbling back, the remains of a decide shattering over it as the door retreated into the ceiling. The alien screeched as orange blood sprayed back, the sound cutting off when my second shot smacked through its head.

Where there was one vermin, there was a dozen. Moving forwards, I jerked my torso around the corner, my gun preceding me. A blur of motion had me shooting again, another Vorcha letting out a hissing scream before it's bleeding body collided with me. I slammed back against the door frame, my left hand snapping up to keep its head away from me as it went for my throat with its teeth.

It sucked in a breath, obviously about to scream again as it tried to claw me through my armor, before my pistol shoved itself into its gut and three muted shots almost blew the spindly creature in half, blood fountaining over me in a disgusting fashion.

I was in the process of throwing the body off of me when the third alien opened up with a shotgun at point-blank range.

My dive to my left was instinctive rather than anything actually helpful, occurring well after the shot had already struck my left side. Pain made my arm throb in agony, even my upgraded barriers couldn't hold at this range against his massive weapon.

The retaliatory shot from my weapon missed right, sparks flying from the wall, but it made the Vorcha flinch. The shot that could have killed me instead flew over my prone form to pit the flooring. Jerking both hands around my gun, I took a half-breath to steady my aim, shove the pain aside, and shoot again. This time blood misted out from its shoulder, but the alien stoically ignored the wound as it settled its own stance, took a step forwards, and aimed at my chest.

Voya's armored boot kicked the gun up and out of its grip, the petite woman flowing out of the service corridor and into the hall proper. Little more than a blur of blue and silver motion, she held a knife in her left hand and her pistol in her right, three shots sounding even as the blade flashed.

A few breaths worth of screams later, and she as standing over a dead Vorcha and was just as covered in blood as I was.

"Hall clear this way." Her voice was low, thready, excited. "You hurt?"

"Annoyed." I growled, shoving myself up to my feet. My left arm still worked, the adrenaline keeping the pain at bay for now, and the bleeding didn't seem to be bad. "More scars for my fucking left arm. What's our route?"

"This way." She jerked her helmet forwards. "Second left. I'll lead."

"Got it." Now that our own bit of fun was over with, I could hear the continuous thunder of weapons being fired in an enclosed space, along with the high-pitched screams of the wounded and dying.

Setting off at a quick march, it took us several minutes to advance the short distance. A quick glance at the wreckage near the door had confirmed that the Vorcha had been trying to rig the it with a plastic explosive of some kind, and I could only be thankful we'd fucked that up before they could set it.

Two more of the makeshift bombs slowed us down, each of us taking a turn at disarming the primitive things. Simple laser tripwires stuck into a vanilla compound, not even having anything to stop us from tampering with them. Probably a rush job, but they were serving their purpose, forcing us to move with a paranoia that slowed us to a crawl.

We ran into the Sergeant and her small troop in the next hall, another dead Vorcha and two humans pirates laying on the floor around them. They were trying to work out out to disarm another of the stupid bombs in the next doorway before Voya motioned them out of the way and took over.

The gunfire was diminishing as we worked, slowing to a final trickle that made me grimace. "Scales, we too late?"

Her voice was tired as she spoke over the final few gunshots. " _Yeah. You slowed up by traps?"_

"They're annoying as fuck." I growled as Voya carefully shut down the latest. "You stormed in?"

" _Yeah. Shyeel and Illyan were both hit, nothing major but they're feeling it."_

I felt myself frowning, a pool of worry growing in my chest. Trena wasn't swearing. "What's wrong? Mascal?"

" _Get in here."_

 _"_ Scales? Trena?" When there was no response, I swore violently. "Voya?"

"One... clear." She scrambled back as I pushed past her and into the main entrance hall, near the back of it.

Two soldiers, their postures exhausted, spun reflexively at the sound of the door opening only to freeze at seeing me. The hall behind them resembled a charnal house, coated in bodies from both sides and most species. Most of it was centered around a dead berserker, it's titanic corpse leaking blood over the dead around it.

They lowered their guns and waved me past them. Leaving them behind, and barely aware of Voya cursing and following, I moved towards the staff rooms where our briefing was supposed to occur and where everyone would probably be.

One hallway, then another, and then I nearly ran into Illyan. She was slumped against the wall, all but ignoring a medic tending to a wound in her side. "Illyan?"

She didn't respond. Stepping up, I followed her gaze, past the Batarian medic, to where Trena was crouched beside more bodies sprawled out across the floor.

Next to her was a young human male, his youthful features slack in death.

"Oh." The word was barely a breath as I stared, and I felt myself slumping against the big Asari unconsciously. The medic squawked something before a blue fist slammed across the the man's face and drove him into the ground.

Illyan shook her hand out before wrapping an arm around my shoulder, the pair of us just... staring.

* * *

**A Scaled Perspective**

"How are they doing?" Shyeel asked, settling onto the other end of the couch.

I grunted around my pipe, the chehala leaves giving me just enough of a buzz that I didn't take her head off for the stupid-ass question. "Ape has another few pockmarks on that left arm, fucking going to be more scar tissue than pale skin at this rate. Illyan needs to take it easy for a bit but it missed her critical crap."

The branded Asari glanced down at her own bandaged hand, in particular the three missing fingers on it. The wound hadn't been cauterized, so they'd grow back eventually, but it was going to be annoying as shit for her in the meantime. "And mentally?"

"Fucking guess."

Her lips pursed a little. "You think they are? Fucking, I mean. Voya's not in there."

No, and thank the goddess for that. The little bitch was with Ul Massa while they watched the prisoner interrogations, everyone trying to figure out just how the fuck this debacle had happened. Most of the rest of the unit had been conscripted onto guard or patrol duty, searching through the massive compound for any fuckers that might have been missed earlier.

Ayle had sent Cie, Illyan, and Shyeel back here, with me along to 'guard' our wounded. The two idiots hadn't said anything on the entire way back, just moving along next to each other as if the rest of the planet didn't exist. They'd locked themselves away in the ape's room as soon as we'd arrived, and he hadn't been so out of it to forget to scramble the password so I couldn't barge in.

"I wouldn't put it past Illyan." I shook my head and exhaled a plume of white smoke. "But with their wounds, their probably just passed out together or staring at fucking nothing. Or getting drunk, I know the ape keeps a few bottles of Illium Rum in there. Besides, from what Massa told me she all but had to order him to fuck her before he got over his mental crap."

Shyeel snorted quietly. "Don't let him know that Ayle's been talking about that."

My right hand waved irritably. "I won't, and she only told me because I annoyed her about it for a couple of days after."

She nodded, and silence fell over the small room again. I kept puffing away on my pipe, and she mostly flicked through her omni-tool, waiting for reports to come in. After maybe ten minutes I pulled my pipe out of my mouth and stared at it for a long few moments. "What was the kid like?"

"Jarrick?" Her eyes flicked up towards me before she rolled a shoulder in a shrug. "I didn't know him all that well. Honestly I think Illyan is the only one who did."

I frowned a little. "The ape didn't?"

"He..." Lips moved silently as her head bobbed around, obviously trying to find the right words. "I think he made Cie uncomfortable. Cie never brushed him off or treated him badly or anything, but he never really sought out his company either."

Well shit. The ape was probably going to be drowning himself over not having treated the kid better, fucking lovely. "Because he was a slave before?"

"Possibly." She shrugged. "He's sort-of a friend, but that's the kind of thing he really only talks to Voya about."

I snorted. "Sort-of?"

Shyeel grinned at nothing, evidently it was some kind of inside thing between them because she changed the topic back to the dead kid. "I know Jarrick had a girl on Omega, one of the Talons I think."

"Shit... who's going to tell her?"

"I don't know who she is, I don't think anyone but Cie and Illyan do."

So one of them. Growling, I shoved my pipe back into my mouth and puffed on it furiously for a few moments, letting the intoxicants do their fucking job. "Athame's ass..."

Eyes stayed on me for several breaths before she shook her head a little. "You're upset."

"Of course I fucking am. We just lost a kid who was _supposed_ to be safe way the fuck away from the battlefield."

"Don't give me that crap." She growled, her curving Thessian accent growing suddenly harsh. "You barely knew Jarrick."

I hadn't. The kid had been occupied almost every hour of every day with his work, analyzing crap for us, helping to coordinate shit, that kind of thing. I could use my bloody fingers to count how many times I'd spoken to him when we weren't on a mission. I sure as fuck hadn't known him well enough to truly get upset over him dying, especially given the fucked-up circumstances.

"Why the fuck you think I'm upset then?" I muttered back.

The perceptive bitch stared down her nose at me, the angle of the lighting making the brand on her cheek glisten. "Because Cie doesn't treat you like his best friend anymore."

My lips curled in disgust. Most of it directed at myself. "You could have made it sound less fucking petty Shyeel."

"Probably." She agreed. "But you aren't a moron. You knew even if he did let you join up and forgive you for fucking up that crap about sharing the implanted memories, your relationship wasn't going to stay the same."

I twitched a little. "I knew that. Know it. Whatever."

Shyeel narrowed her eyes a little. "So you're pissed that he doesn't tell you everything anymore."

"No." I turned away, glowering at the powered down flatscreen on the wall. "I was a stupid bitch who told someone something I shouldn't have, and he's a paranoid asshole. Friend or not I knew he wouldn't trust me with all the crap in his head, not right away anyway. Figured it would take him a year or two to work back up to full trust again."

She cocked her head, then sighed and shook it. "You don't like that Voya took your place."

I didn't like that little bitch. Period. Shit, Illyan might have been convinced that they were in love and in denial about it, but I was praying to Athame that they weren't. Not that they wouldn't be good for each other, they probably fucking would be, but she was just... such a _bitch_.

Somewhere in the back of my head, I could imagine Ghai's rasping laughter at my own hypocritical shit.

"I don't like her, she doesn't like me, let's fucking leave it at that." I exhaled more smoke. "This shit today isn't about me anyway, it's about him and Illyan and how they're going to be."

The Asari Reyja'krem was silent for a few more breaths, then she nodded in polite acceptance. "Surprisingly mature of you."

The fingers around my pipe twitched. "Bitch."

A snort was her reply to that. "Eloquent."

I muttered something uncomplimentary about her before forcing myself to relax and focus on more important crap than my petty shit. "The ape and Illyan. They're going to be out of it for a while."

She grunted, her momentary amusement fading into a serious expression. "I can't claim to know what she'll do. After Kirkwall Cie threw himself into working on his armor, on our equipment, just trying to stay occupied. He was stuck in command after Antibaar, so he couldn't do that as much. His drinking went way up though, and I think he started on the stims around then, though it's really only lately he's had to really use them."

My pipe shot out of the mouth, hands fumbling with it before it clattered to the ground. "Stims? What fucking kind?"

"The kind that keep you awake." Shyeel blinked a few times, obviously taken aback by my reaction. "High-grade ones from Illium, I think they're in the shipments Shaaryak sends. It's not a big deal or anything."

I glared at her. "How is him being addicted to fucking stims _not_ a big deal?"

"Because he's not addicted?" Her eyes narrowed a bit. "He only uses them when he really fucking needs to. I think he's got Voya managing the doses too."

"You haven't confronted him?"

She stared at me for a very long moment, then she held both of her hands up. "See these? I can barely fucking _feel_ these thanks to the drugs I have to take to counter the shit dust did to me. I know what fucking addiction can do to someone, and if I thought for a _moment_ that he was following the same fucking river I was on, I would have already beaten the crap out of him."

It was my turn to flinch at the vehemence in her tone.

"That's assuming Voya didn't kill him first." She exhaled, forcing herself to relax. "He's still in control of himself."

"I... fine." I muttered, looking away and reaching down for my pipe. "Shit. Here I was thinking he was better because he was having sex with someone again."

"That probably helped as well." The couch shifted, probably from a shrug. "Think it would be good for him and Illyan to sleep together?"

"She adores him, even with the stupid fur." Enough to abandon me and Ghai and follow him out to a fucking war, leaving us to watch over Erana even. "If he told her to take her clothes off she'd do it in a breath."

"That much is obvious." Shyeel retorted, though the heat to her words was gone. "I mean would it be good for them, given today?"

I exhaled before pulling my pipe back to my lips. It had kept burning even when I'd dropped it, and the rich flavor helped me to think about it. "I don't bloody know. If he was anyone but himself I'd say yes, but he fucking gets attached to women so easily. Massa said he was at least aware of it, that's why she doesn't drag him to bed all the time. If they do it more than once every few months she thinks he'd fall for her."

"You think if he slept with Illyan he'd fall in love with her?"

"I think he already does, like a big, annoying sister he has to take care of." I shook my head. "Shit, I don't know. He's changing. Maybe it would be good for them, help them get over shit. Or maybe they'd end up together and that would be a bloody mess."

Shyeel grunted, not disagreeing.

Don't get me wrong, I liked her, a lot. She was great in bed and fun to be around, but she was still a Maiden and a young one at that. Shit, she wasn't even a hundred and sixty yet, and bonding deeply would be dangerous as fuck for her mentally. The ape was a good guy, a good person, good friend... but he wasn't an Asari. He'd grow up, grow old, and eventually die long before Illyan even hit the Matron stage, before she was mentally tough enough to deal with the kind of trauma that shit would hit her with.

Then again... if the crap that the Matriarch had shoved into the ape's brain was even close to accurate, we could all be dead in two or three years. In which case it wouldn't fucking matter, and whatever time they had would be good for them.

Shit. I missed Rane'li. With the bashful little lowborn it had been so easy to see how they'd be good together, how they'd fit long term, support each other.

"Can you think of anything to help them?" Shyeel asked, breaking my thoughts apart.

"Besides helping them both get drunk as shit?" I shook my head tiredly. "Illyan will be easier. We can meld with her and sleep with her, help her work through it with experience. The ape though..."

"Yeah." She sighed, then pushed herself to her feet. "I'm going to see if they want to drink with us."

"Door's locked." I pointed out.

"Voya gave me the master code, in case I needed an emergency drink and they were out." Burned skin twisted a little as she gave me a small smile, then padded around the couch and down the hall. Frowning, I turned around and hefted my small frame up enough so that I could lean over the couch and watch. Stopping in front of the room the ape shared with the little bitch, she knocked politely. After maybe a dozen breaths, she tapped out a quick pattern onto the console. The door slid aside, and her mouth opened to say something, then closed as she sighed, the closed the door again.

I blinked a little. "Don't tell me they _are_ having sex?"

"No, your first guess was right. They're passed out in his bed, holding each other."

I grimaced. I would have almost preferred them to be fucking. "Let's get some drinks mixed together and put in the fridge, for when they wake their asses up. Till then they can sleep all they fucking want."

And in the meantime, hopefully someone would find out just what the shit this suicide run had been about.

* * *

_**Next up is Operation: Verdun** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And more pain and loss for everyone to deal with. The next two operations are going to be, if I can write them properly, both very rough and likely very graphic, so you've been warned ahead of time.
> 
> For those interested, there is a new version of the romance poll on my profile, featuring only the top three from the last poll (Voya, Illyan, and Sederis). I will spoil things, slightly, and say that yes: Cieran's planned, final, LI is one of those three people. The poll will run at least through the rest of Vengeance, maybe into Einherjar. If the final winner of the poll isn't the person he ends up with at the end of Einherjar I'll throw together a one-shot or a short series where they end up together. It won't be canon, so I'll probably try and have some fun with it.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	35. Operation: Verdun I

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

**Operation: Verdun I**

_Date: 09-02-2183_

_Location: 121st Regimental Headquarters, Redcliffe, Feralda System, Northern Terminus_

* * *

The month after Jarrick's death was... complicated.

Nearly everyone else was consumed with the initial investigation into what the fuck had happened, and trying to figure out just how many had been lost. In total, the enemy had dropped off a dozen berserkers and better than two hundred troops around the compound. Their job had apparently been to cause as much damage and chaos as possible, so as to keep our attention away from the main target: The Intelligence building.

Three more of the enhanced Krogan, plus sixty or so pirates and elite Vorcha, had hit the structure hard and fast. The few guards had been overwhelmed more or less at once, and the enemy had spread through the building to start killing everyone they found. They'd also dragged a pair of enslaved Quarians with, the former pilgrims unleashing data bombs into the main servers that had forced us to restore everything from months-old backups.

Of course we didn't have anyone to analyze the data anymore. The entire senior Intelligence staff had been killed alongside Jarrick, along with thirty specialized analysts who'd been working at their consoles when the attack hit. Most of the electronic-warfare team was gone too, their work area on the second floor having been shot to shit. Mascal had survived, along with maybe a third of his staff, having managed to barricade themselves into the communications center with maybe a dozen other survivors. All were wounded, including the General, though they'd at least survived.

Included in the dead was our apparent traitor, Mascal's personal Communications Technician, an Asari matron I'd never met. According to the General she'd tried to betray them in the middle of the fight, only to be shot down by a pirate who'd laughed at the very idea of them sticking to whatever deal they'd hand. The surviving analysts had combed over her omni-tool and found it wiped clean, and her personal console in her quarters had likewise had its data destroyed.

The corpses of the two Quarian slaves had been found there, having been executed after their job was done.

"Still no evidence?" I asked over a cup of iced tea, leaning back in my chair. Ayle and I were alone with Colonel Kaste and his niece in a tiny conference room, the four of us preparing to go over our new operational orders. "No bank account in her name?"

"Nothing so obvious." The Colonel sighed, his mandibles twitching twice. "She had full access to the main com logs, and accessed them regularly for official business. It would have been a simple thing for her to modify them to cover her trail."

"And no one would have dared question the General's personal commtech." Major Kaste agreed, one hand clacking its talons against the table. "She evidently knew something vital, or they wouldn't have sacrificed a few hundred people to kill her."

My left shoulder rolled. "Especially if they'd gotten Mascal."

Ayle grunted, setting her own drink down. "Their gain was significant enough. Three hundred dead, five times that wounded. Most of the losses were support specialists not easily replaced, and another blow to the army's morale just when the success of our raids was starting to improve it. "

Her upper eyes briefly shifted towards me at the last, a concealed little gesture of concern that I studiously ignored. "So what's the General's grand plan to get everything back on track?"

"An all out offensive" Vithi Kaste spoke, her head shaking as she rose halfway out of her chair. A few flicks at the small projector built into the center of the table brought up a pair of floating maps, one for each of the major continents. "The entire strategic reserve is being relocated to the southern continent, there to be committed to the front. These three holdouts are to be taken within the month, the containment forces then relocated to the direct push towards the city of Ostland."

Frowning, I set my tea aside and leaned forwards to track the information. "Direct assaults?"

She nodded, mandibles quivering slightly. "Bloody victories are still victories, and the longer this campaign continues the more chances Zaen has to wear at us. If Ostland can be taken within two months, we will have effectively secured everything worth securing on that continent."

"Which would be a major coup." Ayle nodded slightly, blinking her eyes in sequence. "And allow him to shift nearly all of his forces to create a heavy push on the capital city."

"To _join_ the push on the capital." The Colonel corrected. "Those regiments not securing the mountain line to the north are going to launch a direct advance."

My mouth worked a few times. "A _direct_ attack towards the capital? Without the strategic reserves?"

"Yes." The Major stretched out a finger, tapping a few commands to display the plan of advance. "Twelve first-rate units, including us, and sixteen second rate will shuttle to this plain here. We will then advance along this axis and approach the city from the south-east."

"That's barely enough to threaten the outer defenses." The Batarian woman on my right shook her head. "And your unit listing only indicates four second-rate units in reserve, how does he intend to manage the rotation?"

Vithi didn't look at either of us. "There won't be one. We will be on the line until Ostland falls and we can be relieved."

We both just stared at her for several long breaths, before the Colonel rose and leaned onto the table. "Our purpose is not to directly advance or threaten the city. We are to bleed its defenders, force them to recognize us as a threat and thus keep the fortress garrison's locked in place. If Zaen is focused on protecting his throne, he will be unable to properly direct the other campaigns."

It was my turn to drum my fingers on the table, staring at the map before shaking my head. "Zaen will see through that, he's not a bloody idiot. We're going to be well outside of our GARDIAN umbrella, and we know he's got to have some nukes laying around. He'll just throw a couple of those at us and then rush Hintertown."

"We'll be bringing the mobile turrets with us, along with all of the mobile GTS and SAM launchers that the units currently in the reserves have." He glanced at me. "To ensure that we can properly threaten him, we will also be allocated half of their artillery companies."

"Further." His niece spoke up, tapping another icon. "Four frigates will be on rotation at two horizon lengths from the city at all times, along with a full CAP of interceptors. They won't be able to enter the city's own defensive range, but any high-altitude launch will be engaged by their weapons."

Ayle looked about as mollified as I was about that. "That will still leave us within the fortress's own artillery range, and fighting a protracted engagement that will likely last a _minimum_ of two months."

Both Turian's mandibles shifted a little in discomfort, though it was the elder who replied. "Yes. I will be the senior officer, and I intend to ensure an internal rotation at the company level."

"Which will last until Zaen starts to flank us and we have to extend the line." I shook my head. "Why are we even bothering with this? A defensive line to protect the mountain's southern flank would be enough, it's not like he can shuttle or airlift his people to the other continent. Not quickly anyway."

"Not quickly, but it is doable." Kaste turned to glare at me. "And you forget the water-born shipping. The capital and Ostland's GARDIAN towers keep our ships at orbital patterns that give them more than enough time to make the run, and he has sufficient fighters left to make any intercept difficult. The cargo freighters could ship the entire city garrison in a matter of weeks."

"And if he can turn Ostland into a protracted engagement, he could bleed _us_ dry instead of the other way around." The Major sat, her voice tired. "As you said Commander, morale is low, especially in the second-rate units. This campaign _must_ go as planned, the army _must_ advance, Ostland _must_ fall. Anything that could disrupt, delay, or outright counter the operation must be checked."

I glanced at Ayle sharply, and saw her face twist in a scowl before she dipped her head reluctantly to the left. "What will the Blades orders be?"

"You will continue to act as a special forces attachment." Kaste returned to his chair slowly, suddenly, visibly tired, and I abruptly realized that he liked this plan just about as much as we did. He was going to do it, of course, but he didn't much like it. "Shore up key defensive zones, acting as a forward unit to breach target positions during counter-attacks, and other similar actions."

So exactly what we'd been doing before the raiding operations had begun. "When do we leave?"

"Forty eight hours."

I let out a hissing sigh between my teeth. "Then we need to start getting everything organized."

The Colonel nodded, "My company commanders should be waiting for their initial brief, do wave them in for me."

Ayle and I both nodded and rose, she trying not to lean heavily on her cane as she did, and I politely opened the door for her and let her depart first before following. There was a mixed group of officers waiting in the hall outside, and we waved them towards the door as we left.

After that we didn't say anything, seething in our own private ways until we reached the building's exit and strode out into the boiling heat.

"No way we can get out of this?" I held a hand up to shield my eyes, wishing I had my helmet with. "Nothing in the contract?"

Ayle let hair whistle between her teeth, posture shifting to show her own anger, her prosthetic creaking a little as it curled into a fist. "No. We are obligated to be attached to the 121st through the duration of the campaign. Unless Kaste releases us to hunt Krom independently we're stuck."

"Shit." I muttered. "You notice the other regiments assigned to this?"

"Yes." She growled quietly, cane striking the ground with a bit more force than required. "The others with mercenary units attached, along with those others who had been assigned to raiding operations."

"Those second-rate units are combat veterans too. Mascal is throwing his elites into the fucking hurricane."

"Would any other unit be able to do it?"

I grunted quietly. "Fair point. Athame's ass though Ayle, this is going to be a fucking nightmare."

"Yes." Metal glinted as she lifted her artificial right arm up, staring at the metal fingers as they flexed. "I should go with you."

My eyes flicked in her direction. "Your arm might be working, mostly, but you're still limping badly and you need that cane to move. Plus you can barely get through your therapy sessions without falling over."

Her growl returned, low and deep. "I am aware of my weakness, Cieran."

"Then you know you can't come with us." I twitched a shoulder. "Speaking pragmatically, you're the most important person in the unit right now. I don't have the temperament or skills to keep the unit together long-term without you. The Kithans would probably both leave within a month, and while Callada and Dietrich like the paychecks and the company, this might go beyond what they're willing to put up with."

The anger in her stance didn't dissipate. "This asshole phase is becoming annoying, Cieran. You would do well to stop emulating Voya."

"Blunt honesty saves time." I replied. "And I've always been an ass."

"Yes," She ground the words out, "But you've been taking it to a new level since Jarrick died. That you, Voya, and T'Donna have all but formed a private clique over the past month is not helping matters either."

My eyes flicked to her face, shifting between both of her dark sets of eyes. "What do you want from me?"

"Answers." Ayle all but hissed the word, her anger lowering her head further to the right and making me glance away from her. "His death wasn't something we could have predicted."

"I know that." I growled back, anger surging like a rough tide. "We had him in the safest place we could think of, we didn't have him doing anything actually dangerous. We had no fucking reason to think shit like this would happen. I _know_ there isn't anything we could have fucking done about it."

"Besides not asking him to join us?"

My hands shook violently for a second before I reined in the impulse to hit her. " _Now_ who's being an asshole?"

"You're about to be thrown into a sandstorm, and you will be expected to _lead_ everyone through it." She countered, pulling to a stop and glaring at me with all four eyes, her head lowered in challenge. "I'm _trying_ to see if you're mentally sound enough to do so."

I managed a glare of my own for a few seconds before the logical part of my brain finally seized control again, forcing my neck to lower my head in submission. "I am."

A metal hand grabbed my chest plate, pulling me a bit closer. "Are you?"

"Yes." Exhaling heavily, I returned my head to a neutral position and stared at her upper set of eyes in challenge. "Shit, at this point I'd _rather_ be out fighting. I'm constantly furious, not depressed, and if we're out killing things then at least I won't have time to keep dwelling on stupid regrets."

Four black eyes narrowed, but there was the tiniest of nods. "All right, but if I hear you're having _any_ problems out there..."

"You'll demote me and put Thul in command." I nodded, stepping back as she released me. "I get it."

"I was going to say that I'd rip all of your fur out first," Something like a smile appeared, "And then demote you."

Reaching up with a hand, I ran the fingers through my goatee, touching the braids on either side. "You wouldn't, you'd think I looked stupid as hell without it."

Her smile briefly became something genuine as she turned away, my legs resuming their own motion as we continued our trek back towards our prefab. "We still need to talk."

The moment of mirth ended as I exhaled. "About what?"

"Same topic." A muscle in my cheek twitched, "Did you seriously believe that I would let your behavior go so easily?"

"No, but I was hopeful." I muttered before sighing. "We needed him with, he did critical work for us. We couldn't have predicted what would happen."

"And yet you are still angry."

"Of course I fucking am. I want to skin Krom alive before we give him to Aria." I growled. "That shit had his markings all over it."

She nodded slightly. "You don't need more reasons to hate him, though I accept the excuse."

My lips twisted a little, and I fell silent for several long paces before I exhaled and nodded. "I should have been better to him. Shit, I barely spent anytime with him after we got start with this crap. You probably knew him better than I did, in the end. So yeah, I'm pissed at myself for being an distant ass to a kid who I should have been a better friend to."

It was Ayle's turn to be quiet for a few breaths before she shook her head irritably. "Haven't we already had a discussion about regrets and things that can't be changed?"

"At least three or four times." I shrugged in reply. "And didn't I say I was terrible at following that kind of advice?"

"You did." She exhaled slowly. "But the fact that you recognize that is something, I suppose. What of T'Donna and Voya?"

"Voya is Voya." Another shrug. She was equally as angry, mostly with the same regrets that I had, though considering that it was Voya the additional fury was almost unnoticeable. A bit of an extra bite to her sarcasm, a touch more bitchiness than usual, but I didn't think anyone besides Illyan, and maybe Thul, had really noticed the extra pain. "Illyan just needed some time. Combat losses are something she can process, this was... different."

A quiet grunt. "She's as angry as you are, isn't she?"

"At least as much." Air whistled between my teeth as I sighed. "I'm going to keep an eye on her, make sure she doesn't lose it. That's why Voya and I are hovering around her all the time."

"Because you and Voya are so stable yourselves." Her exhausted tones robbed the words of any real bite. "She won't meld with any of the other Asari."

"I'm guessing scales told you that." My head shook a little. "It's her choice. I'm not going to force her to let someone else into her head to help her process it. The first week was rough but she's good enough to fight, she won't be a burden. Or a risk."

Ayle nodded silently, her head dipping a bit to show that she believed me, and trusted that I knew what I was talking about. Which in itself was a rather heavy thing on its own, considering that I hadn't exactly been a steadfast and proper leader over the past few weeks. Technically I hadn't needed to be, since she was present and was taking as much of her power back as she could. Her pride as a Batarian demanded she do as much, and I was all too happy to step back, but that didn't change the facts of her injuries.

I should have been doing more than I had, organizing and handling logistics instead of just foisting all of that off on Amy and Thul. More regrets, though at least those were fixable and not likely to drag me into the deeps.

"On mission." Her voice took on the steady tone of mantra, shaking me free of my thoughts as we continued our slow walk. "Based on what we know, what's your operational plan?"

Half-closing my eyes, I let the wind gather behind the part of my brain that was good at planning and analyzation. "We're going to be on the plains just outside of the capital, with no air support. If we are getting all those supporting companies and equipment, we can assume the enemy won't have any either. What armored units Zaen has are all down south, and we've lost just about all of our tanks... shit."

"A siege." She exhaled. "Trench warfare."

"Yeah. We'll have to advance to a range where the artillery can fire directly on one of the forts in order to threaten them enough to come out at us, then dig in and hold them off while we bombard the place." Reaching up with a hand, I ran it over my sweating brow. "And we'll be under counter-battery fire the entire fucking time."

"As you said," Her tone turned dry as she imitated my annoyed tones, "A fucking hurricane."

"Yeah... shit. We can't stay constantly on the line, whatever the fuck Kaste might want. If we're defending we'll setup a rotation. Figure a day on the front, one in the reserves, one off. Adjust as required to enemy pressure."

Ayle frowned at nothing in particular, limping along on her cane. "Counter-attacks? One team will be more battle-worn than the others."

"Yeah. Figure whichever team is on the front would be tasked as reserves, or I'd pull us all off the front for a day or two before." I shook my head in annoyance. "Assuming that's possible. Otherwise we'll have to swim against the current and then pull back for a couple of days to recover. Team three is the problem, they're going to be down Glitch.

Her frown deepened. "You are not bringing it with?"

"No." I waved a hand vaguely at her. "You can handle yourself, even as you are, but Amy can't, and you can't constantly be awake to watch over her. It stays to protect the prefab at night, and escort her if she needs to go into town. Illyan and Voya can tweak it's code appropriately before we go."

She grunted quietly, looking a little mollified at my statements about her skill. "You aren't bringing Chang with either?"

"I want her investigating things." My voice lowered. "Both things in fact."

The Batarian woman simply nodded, staying silent. She knew what I meant, and that neither subject was something that we could talk about in the open like this.

Investigation number one was the more important of the two, with Chang trying to work out who the Matriarch's puppets had been and if there was more of them around or not. She was under the impression that they were a gang with a vendetta against us, with implications that the SIU was sponsoring them. Similar enough for her to find leads, and dangerous enough for her to realize the threat. As with her prior investigations for me, she was taking her time about it and maximizing her own safety, which I entirely approved of. I didn't need someone else dying on me.

The second thing I wanted her to look into was more to satisfy my paranoia than anything else. General Mascal may have been confident that the traitor had been found and dealt with, but in the absence of a proper analyzation team I wanted to be sure. Whenever she had time Amy would be going through what was left of Jarrick's data, trying to piece together whatever evidence he'd had at the time of the server's last backup. I didn't expect much, neither did Ayle, but we both agreed it was better to make sure than risk the real traitor was still running around.

"Perhaps you should pull Washana and Illyan out." I blinked and glanced at her as she smoothly returned to the prior topic, "That would even all three teams out. They would act as a medical core. T'Donna is certainly strong enough to move anyone should the situation require it, and it would ensure that Washana is constantly on watch."

"And potentially less exhausted because she won't have to stand a turn at the front." I mused, nodding slightly. "And it lets you get Illyan in the back."

She nodded slightly, her head tilting right. "Two people with anger issues in one squad is quite enough, is it not?"

A muscle in my cheek twitched a little. "Fine. I'll swap Voya and... Callada around as well."

"You trust that Thul can manage her?"

"No one can 'manage' her if she doesn't want to be, but she respects him."

Her lips curled on one side. "And she would kill T'Laria if you attempted to put her into that team?"

"Only after she gave me a few new scars for even trying to order her to do it." I muttered, seeing the sunlight glinting off of Glitch's unpainted plating ahead of us. "Do me a favor while we're gone?"

"Stay alive? Keep Chang alive?" Something almost wicked touched her smile. "Continue working out so that you can stare at my abs and drool?"

My left leg kicked out, and she barely got her cane out of the way before my foot got there. "I do not drool."

She chuckled, a deep, low sound. "But you do stare."

I ignored that statement with a disdainful tilt of my head, crossing my arms behind my back to inform her that I was far above such base things. Her chuckled grew louder, almost a cackle, but she refrained from trying to tease me further, apparently content in her efforts to improve the mood a bit.

We bypassed Glitch, the tall mech's head swiveling to track some of the other soldiers walking past on their own errands, and entered our place. Thul and Amy were in the kitchen, the latter taking notes about some story that the former was telling, while Shyeel and Callada were both sprawled on the couch and watching a re-run of some movie. Washana was with them, but had elected to flop on the floor rather than sit in the open chair.

The young medic was the one who perked up first as we shut the door behind us, pausing the movie to the protestations of the other Asari behind her. "Hey sir, ma'am. How'd the briefing go?"

"Don't call me sir." I muttered halfheartedly. "And less than well. Our next mission isn't going to be fun."

The red markings on her face twisted as she frowned. "That bad sir?"

"Worse." My chest heaved out a breath, and I headed towards the fridge. "How do you feel about besieging a fortress?"

Thul, who'd stopped talking when I'd spoken up, grunted. "The capital?"

"Yes." Ayle supplied, following me into the kitchen but electing to sit at the small table beside the former priest and reporter. Using quick and terse sentences while I fixed myself a drink, she explained the basics without going fully into the details.

Shyeel and Callada traded a look when she finished, then the latter sighed and rose. "I'll head over to the bar, drag Dietrich and Trena back here."

I grunted, sipping at the bitter Illium Rum in my glass. "Shyeel, you go too, in case scales is too drunk to walk straight."

"Or if she's found company." The branded Asari grunted, pushing herself to her feet as well. They took a few moments to grab their helmets and guns, then ducked out to go retrieve them.

With that done, I glanced over at Thul, "The Kithans?"

"Cleaning up after their sparring match this morning." He reported stoically. "Or perhaps they are now occupied with something else."

Of course they were. Standing convention was not to risk opening their room's door for at _least_ two hours after they had a sparring match. "Voya and Illyan?"

"Working on her rifle in your room, and sleeping in the same, I believe." He supplied, his lower eyes blinking. "Did you wish to have our briefing now?"

I glanced at Ayle, then shook my head. "It can wait until tonight. Scales and Dietrich will probably need to sober up anyway. We'll get everything ready to go tomorrow, handle any other affairs the morning of. That work?"

She nodded. "Perhaps over dinner, we can utilize our usual room at Garham's. It is private enough."

Private enough to contain the massive tantrums that would likely result once the details were explained, especially from Trena and Voya. And probably me, if I was being honest about things.

Seeing that Ayle and I were content to not talk about things for a while, Thul politely turned back to Amy, "Where was I?"

"Um..." She shook herself a little, then glanced down at her notes. "How you and your people intervened in the gang fight?"

"Ah, yes." He nodded and resumed his story. It was one I'd heard before, one of the few good things he and his cadre had managed to do before the SIU had showed up and fucked everything.

Dipping my head politely to both him and Ayle, I padded out of the kitchen, snorting at the sight of Washana. She'd hopped up onto the couch and was sprawled across it, giving my a youthful grin before resuming her movie. Flicking the back of her crest as I walked past, I ignored her petulant curse and headed for my room.

I needed a shower, to finish working on my helmet's upgrades, and to figure out how to tell Voya and Illyan about the squad reorganization.

And how to survive the last, when they inevitably didn't take it well.

* * *

_**Next up is Operation: Verdun II** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mostly a setup chapter, Ayle making sure that Cie is still sane enough to lead everyone, and the very rough plan of what's going to be happening moving forwards. Next chapter will be launching right into it, and from there things will proceed into the main story arc that will cover the rest of the story.
> 
> For those interested, there is a new version of the romance poll on my profile, featuring only the top three from the last poll (Voya, Illyan, and Sederis). I will spoil things, slightly, and say that yes: Cieran's planned, final, LI is one of those three people. The poll will run at least through the rest of Vengeance, maybe into Einherjar. If the final winner of the poll isn't the person he ends up with at the end of Einherjar I'll throw together a one-shot or a short series where they end up together. It won't be canon, so I'll probably try and have some fun with it.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	36. Operation: Verdun II

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

**Operation: Verdun II**

_Date: 09-14-2183_

_Location: Capital Front, Redcliffe, Feralda System, Northern Terminus_

* * *

The human militia soldier let out a choking, gurgling sound when I slammed my fist into her unarmored throat. She staggered back and away from me, her back hitting the trench wall as she desperately tried to make her wind-pipe start working again. Rather than give her the chance, I snapped my heavy pistol up and executed her, my head already on a swivel to find another target.

A Vorcha standing over-top of a downed soldier had its back to me, and I put two rounds into it from maybe two meters away. It went down without a sound, the Turian that it had been about to kill throwing the corpse off as he fought to get back upright.

"Incinerate left!" Callada's shout reached me before I could move forwards to help the man get up, and I whirled around on reflex to support her. The omni-tool on my left hand sprang to life with a gesture, my fingers curling to input the command.

She'd thrown up a barrier, the dark blue energy easily stretching from one side of the thin trench to the other, and I could vaguely make out several Vorcha trapped in between it and another biotic's power a few meters further down.

"Incoming!" I shouted as the mine leaped from its launcher on my waist, the orange disc whipping up and over her power before plunging down. The Asari flinched as the small explosion sent ripples across the barrier, the yowling screeches of burning Vorcha assaulting our ears. Her hand fell, the curtain of energy vanishing with it, and then she advanced to finish them off.

Leaving her to it, I glanced in the other direction just in time to see a Batarian launch himself at me in a flying tackle.

Snarling as my back hit the ground, I was rolling to my left before he could recover enough to try and shoot me with the shotgun he'd managed to keep a hold of. The idiot was evidently brave enough but hadn't thought his attack through, and my motion threw him off of me. While he struggled to free his gun or drop it to hit me, I wasn't sure which, I jammed my much more manageable weapon into his gut and yanked the trigger.

From the pitching yowl of his scream, I'd probably hit his stomach directly. Shoving the gun into the bloody mess that the first round had left, I put two more rounds into him, the second of which made the sounds abruptly stop.

Shoving the still twitching body away, I forced myself to stand again, scrambling upright just as another pair of Vorcha hurled themselves into the trench a scant breath ahead a sudden burst of tracer fire from one of the supporting lines further back.

The Turian soldier I'd saved earlier jerked his carbine up, a snap-shot that took one of the flying creatures in the leg. It yowled in pain, the sound redoubling when it hit the ground and collapsed, before several more shots put it down for good.

While I personally thought my own aim had improved from mediocre to above average, firing a hand-cannon one handed at a flying target when I was trembling and exhausted was still a bit beyond me. Bringing my left hand onto my gun to steady it, I blew out a long breath as the Vorcha hit the ground, then tried to bring its submachine-gun up to shoot at the Turian.

The first shot into its chest probably killed it, but just to be sure I shot it two more times as it fell.

The Turian gave me an abbreviated salute before darting up to the nearest fire-step, hopping up and onto it and starting to bang away at anyone else trying to get into the line with us. Twisting myself left and right, I looked up and down the trench for any more enemies, but only found more allied troops. Their once white-armor was mostly a muddish brown now, probably permanently, and the majority were following the Turian's lead and getting back into shooting positions. A few stayed in the main trench proper, checking downed enemies and friends for any signs of life.

Reaching up with my left hand, I tapped my helmet to get to the right frequency. "Thul, we've cleared section forty-five, what's your situation?"

" _Section fifty-one is cleared."_ His deep voice sounded at least as tired as my own. " _Trena just finished off the last enemy in fifty-two."_

"Good, hold in place for now." Another few flicks brought me to the main channel. "Major, it's Kean. We've cleared our designated sectors, holding for new orders."

Major Vithi Kaste's replied almost at once, " _Pull back to the reserve positions, I'm already rotating a platoon up to reinforce that position but I want you on stand-by. The Third Theodosian is still actively engaged, we might need you over there."_

"Got it." I exhaled through my teeth and relayed the orders to everyone else before turning to the only member of my squad I'd had with. "Callada, come on."

"I heard ya." The Asari Reyja'krem groaned, shuffling through the dirt and grime that covered the bottom of the trench. "Shit. I'm fuckin' starvin'."

My lips twisted a little inside my helmet, and I moved over to help her move. There was a slight grunt when I stooped enough to throw one of her arms over my shoulder, more or less hauling her along by main strength.

"Need to stop overdoing it with your biotics." I pointed us as we moved into another trench that lead towards the rear, keeping to one side so that the reinforcements moving in the other direction weren't impeded by us.

"Barely fuckin' use 'em..." When I didn't bother responding, she exhaled irritably. "Shit. Guess I should keep 'em for emergencies only, huh?"

"Didn't I already order you to do that?"

"Probably." She muttered. "How am I supposed ta remember crap like that in the middle of a fight?"

I rolled the shoulder supporting her arm "Work on it, we don't need you having a seizure or some crap."

There was a quiet grunt, and then she fell silent as we moved back through the defenses. We moved down the trench and into the main secondary line, a much wider trench that served as the primary defensive position with bunkered heavy machine guns and fire-steps every meter or so. Moving along it, we ducked into another communications trench and eventually made it to a box-shaped hole in the ground.

Callada dropped onto the ground almost at once, yanking her helmet off and pulling energy bars and water bottles out of the pack she'd left next to a wall.

I was contemplating imitating her when everyone else began to arrive. "Thul. Scales."

They both nodded tiredly as they came into our ready post. Behind them came Dietrich and Faras Kithan, rounding out our front line detachment.

Ayle and I's operational plan had fallen apart after the first couple of days, and I'd had to improvise a new one that actually worked with all the crap that was happening to us. Instead of our traditional squads I'd thrown the six of us together as our main combat unit, separating into assigned pairings when we had to split up. For their part, Voya and Shyeel had been shifted to dedicated sniping duty, taking Illyan and Idas to spot and cover for them. That left Washana stuck as our flasher-fish, running messages back and forth when she wasn't patching up our various wounds.

Watching as everyone else fell out and tried to get some fluids and food, I stepped away into a corner and flicked my commlines back open. "We're back Major, how long we waiting?"

" _They're holding at the moment, stay on standby for twenty."_ She replied in the harried tones of someone managing too many things at once. " _After that we'll have another platoon in place to support them if needed."_

I merely grunted when she cut the line without another word.

Thul glanced over from where he'd sat cross-legged on the ground, his dark eyes blinking a bit as he sat his helmet in his lap. "Twenty minutes. It could be far worse."

"Yeah." My left shoulder rolled a little as I dipped my head in respectful agreement. "Can't say I like this phased reinforcement crap that the Colonel's doing."

"Commander-General." He corrected my blandly. "He was promoted, yes?"

"Just to shut up that fucker from the 42nd." I shrugged again, turning to let my back rest against the muddy wall. "He was the senior officer either way."

The former priest dipped his head in acknowledgment. "The first rate units cannot hold the primary line on their own, and dispersing them at least allows them to reinforce the second-rate troops wherever they are needed the most."

"Still leaves us fucking running all over the place." Trena growled, tearing viciously at a piece of jerky she'd pulled from a pouch on her belt. "Not even fucking moving, just stuck in fucking holes in the ground."

"We could be on the left flank, trying to clear out that pocket and straighten the line." I pointed out quietly.

She flinched, and Thul's hands came together to form the symbol of his faith. "Pillar of Strength lend those men and women your power."

Advancing was the last thing anyone wanted to do at this point. The initial response to the massed landing of our expeditionary force had been slow and disorganized, entirely too much so for Zaen to have been the one commanding it. He was probably in Ostland, directing the defense there, leaving subordinates to handle the garrison of a city he no doubt considered inviolable. Apart from a few haphazard missile strikes, easily shot down, the first day had gone better than planned.

The night had made up for it when the second-rate units in the vanguard had begun attempting to fortify our target ridge, about twenty kilometers from Fortress Seven. I had no idea what the Krogan called it, nor for that matter did I really care all that much. The important thing was that the geography of the city had left it exposed on a slight salient on the south-eastern border of the city. From what we could tell two more forts had been under construction to reduce its vulnerability, but hadn't been completed by the time our attack got underway.

It had been late that first night when its commander had finally gotten his shit together and realized there was an army prepping to hammer him with artillery. His heavy guns had begun pounding us almost at once, and as far as I could tell they hadn't stopped since. The dull thunder of the big guns was a constant rumble in the background, as his guns and ours traded blows over the horizon. His aim seemed to be to try and disrupt our artillery as much as possible, force us to keep moving the guns to lessen their impacts on his counter-attacks.

That seemed to be the current plan anyway, but during those first few days his target had been the poor souls trying to create the field-works we were now inside of. They'd taken a bloody mauling that had only gotten worse when better than six regiments worth of garrison militia had advanced from the city to try and throw us back before we could setup.

We hadn't been involved in that week-long fight, thank the goddess. We and the 121st had been caught up in skirmishing battles on the right flank, supporting the entrenchment process over there, but shit had gotten real bad on the central ridge. Right now the two second-rate units, plus the first-rate that had moved up to reenforce them, who'd been at the heart of the fighting were now firmly in the rear and still trying to consolidate shattered platoons and squads into useable formations.

"That makes what, three counter pushes this week?" Dietrich spoke up, breaking me from the memories of what the survivors from that early fighting had looked like when they'd been rotated out. "Trying to find a weak point."

"Probably." I sighed, finally reaching up and tearing my own helmet off. "Same reason they're trying to curl around the right flank and made that big hit on the left."

He grunted, tossing me his bottle of water before I could pull a flask off my belt. I caught it and bowed my head in thanks as he spoke again. "How is the right side? Haven't heard crap, and I'd rather not have the army be flanked."

"Last I heard the 111th swung out into the desert, then curled back and drove them a good kilometer away." I took several gulps of the pure liquid before gasping, trying not to show how good it had felt to drink the plain water. "I don't think they'll try that again, not with how flat the terrain is. We can see them coming forever and pound them with the reserve guns. Plus we've got the 32nd with all of the tanks we scrounged together, they're just waiting for someone to try."

"Haven't seen any Tomkahs." The bearded man nodded in agreement. "That's something. Not sure what though."

"Means we won't get fucking killed from behind." Trena mumbled around another mouthful of jerky. "Just from up front."

"Not much of a consolation." He replied, catching the bottle when I threw it back at him. "I'm more worried about what we're going to do when that genius in that fort realizes what we're doing and stops attacking us."

"Outskirts of the city are in range of the bigger guns." Glancing down at my helmet, I started checking it for cracks or other signs of damage. "Probably start flinging shells into it. Might rile the militia up enough to keep hitting us."

 _"Barely_ in fucking range ape." Scales grunted as she finished her snack, grabbing her helmet and yanking it back on before continuing. "We'd need to advance to get the supporting batteries in range. And if we aren't hitting anything important they'd tell them to shut the fuck up and stay in place."

I sighed, spinning my headgear around and pulling it up and over my head. "Probably. At least we'll have our power armor with for that kind of thing."

Thul glanced at me with his upper eyes, his lowers focused on an energy bar he was unwrapping. "How long until they expand the forward positions enough to fit yourself and Dietrich?"

"Depends on how many more attacks they have to fight off, can't risk digging when the enemy is rushing at us." I replied with a tired shrug. "But until we can move through the lines in them there isn't a point to wearing them. Unless you feel like being the only target on the surface Dietrich."

Dietrich let out a deep snort to make it clear what he thought of that. "No thank you. Leave those things locked up at headquarters till we can use 'em without dying."

"Then I assume you'll be up late working on your new weapon again?" The former priest continued, as if Dietirch hadn't. When I nodded the affirmative, he dipped his head politely. "Good, but do please remember to sleep."

"It won't be a problem." I shrugged a little. And for once I was being honest about it, sleep hadn't been a problem since the fighting had gotten started. I was just too fucking exhausted to have nightmares, or for insomnia to really sink its teeth in.

"That gun is going to be." Trean muttered. "You seriously going to use that piece of shit carbine? It's fucking local stock ape, made for those militia."

"It's also a heavy caliber weapon with a lot of fucking stopping power." I pointed out. "With a way longer effective range than my pistol."

"Still crap." She insisted.

My eyes rolled. "Why do you think I'm modifying the crap out of it?"

From her mutters she still didn't agree with the plan, but that was too fucking bad for her. I'd grabbed it off of a dead soldier a few days prior, and it was proving cathartic to work on it when I could. Things more or less fell silent after that, everyone checking their omni-tools to keep track of every minute as it went past, up until our relief arrived in the form of a dozen soldiers from the 121st. We exchanged a few words with them, mostly warning them about how the afternoon's attack had happened, and where we thought the enemy was focusing, and then we started making our way further back.

I made another few calls over the radio, telling our snipers and Washana to head for home as well. Our shift was done for the day, unless another localized attack developed. Voya and Shyeel sounded relieved to be able to leave the make-shift sniper nests they'd setup in, wherever they'd done so, and indicated they'd be there shortly. Washana was still at the field hospital helping, and made it clear she wouldn't be back for a while.

I told her not to worry, and to focus on doing what she could. She seemed to appreciate that before someone else had shouted her name, and she'd cut the line to run off and help.

Meandering through the thin trenches, in some cases they were barely wide enough for us to walk normally, we eventually reached a small hole set into the wall. Stepping forwards, I waved everyone into our current home.

One of the many problems of our situation was that being 'off the line' didn't mean we could pull back out of artillery range. In order to do that we'd have had to go way the fuck back into the desert behind us, and so the simple act of sleeping was something you never knew if you would wake up from or not. Eventually there'd be enough bunkers for everyone, but until then most of the soldiers were stuck sleeping in foxholes or grooves cut into the walls of trenches.

And even if you had a bunker, like we did, the name was misleading. It was basically just a hollowed out hole in the ground, with pylons shoved inside to shore up the ceiling. Tiny eezo nodes at the tops of each one were connected to an emergency power pack in the center of the room, linked to a mesh in the ceiling that would create a barrier if an artillery shell hit nearby. Theoretically it would stop us from being buried alive by a near-miss, give us enough time to get out before it all came down, but if a big enough round hit overhead we were fucked regardless.

Still, it was a step up from the alternative, even if our 'beds' were just more alcoves cut into the walls.

Helmets and gloves came off after we were inside, everyone tossing them into the alcoves we slept in, but the rest of the armor stayed on. Glancing around, I found the Turian male lingering near a wall, and dipped my head towards him. "Faras, your turn on meal duty right?"

He nodded, his taciturn voice low. "I'll handle it. Won't be fancy."

"Food is food." I replied quietly, the memories of what Jarrick could do with even basic rations welling up before I could push them aside. "Dietirch? Mind helping him?"

"Might as well."

While the pair of them moved to the corner where we'd setup a few hot plates and our other meager cooking supplies, I trundled over and all but collapsed next to my alcove. My eyes lingered on the plain blankets I'd piled inside of it for several moments before I forced myself to look away, to start grabbing the dismantled pieces of my new carbine from the small box I'd put them in.

My hand tools weren't a proper work bench, but they let me resume working on getting an additional pair of heat sinks into the boxy weapon, and I was absorbed in my work when a figure sat heavily on the ground beside me.

"Cie." Voya breathed my name tiredly, stretching out her legs. "Seven kills today."

"Not a bad afternoon then." I replied, sparing her a glance. "How's the suit?"

Glowing eyes narrowed at the sore subject. "How do you fucking think it is? I'd rather be sick than be trapped in this stupid thing and you know it."

I exhaled and set my tools down. "Operational orders. All Quarians are to stay suited up for the duration, we need you fighting more than we need you comfortable."

There was a low, furious growling sound. "I'd be-"

"Sick as shit and then dead." I replied, keeping my own tones even. "And you know it otherwise you'd have already ripped your way out of it."

Her fingers curled and then relaxed several times before she looked away. "I... fine, I know. I just... you have no idea what it's like to constantly have tubes shoved inside of you, every day, constantly."

I didn't, and I knew that she'd gotten very used to not having to have her full suit functionality going for more than a day or two at a time. The argument after Kaste's general order had been... unpleasant, to say the least.

"Look on the bight side," I glanced up as Illyan spoke, tossing her helmet past my head and into my 'bed', "You don't have to relieve yourself into a hole in the ground like the rest of us. And you can't smell the fact that we haven't bathed in a week."

"Yes, because emptying waste pouches is _so_ pleasant." The sarcasm faded as she cocked her head, "Though I am thankful that I don't have to notice your stench."

Illyan just snorted, "That's your best comeback? Somebody's exhausted."

"Fuck you." The Quarian muttered, visibly slumping back a bit. "Cie, can't I swap spotters with Shyeel? I'd so much rather have Idas with instead of this idiot."

"Won't hear me complain boss." The big Asari added her own agreement.

"No." I replied at once, my attention already back on my work.

"Why not?" Voya demanded.

"I enjoy making you both miserable." A three fingered fist promptly smacked into my side, drawing a grunt even with my armor. It was quickly followed by a blue hand smacking across the top of my head, and two alien woman glaring furiously at me.

"Asshole." They said the word more or less in unison, in the same annoyed tone of voice. It took them a moment to realize what they'd done, but as soon as the wave hit the beach they turned their glares on each other.

"Hey! No fighting! Goddess you're worse than decade old maidens." A new voice cut in as Shyeel moved in between them, her Kishok still in her hands as her helmet flicked between the two. The glares found a new target, which the Reyja'krem blithely ignored as she collapsed her weapon. "Cie. How's the gun coming along?"

"Slowly." I bent over, peering at where I'd connected one of the new heat-sinks before grunting. "Couple more days and I'll start bringing it with."

Her frown became visible as she pulled her helmet off, her body shifting aside as Idas moved past her, heading towards her husband. "We still going to be on the line in a few days?"

"Probably." My right shoulder rose and fell. "You want a break?"

"Not used to four days on with no sign of time off in our future." The Asari admitted, shuffling past me to her own makeshift bed. "And I've got it easier than you, just picking off idiots from a nice distance."

Another shrug, though I added a sigh to it. "We're only online for six hours of a day, that's lower than a lot of other units are doing right now. Attacks like today increase that number, but there's nothing we can do about it."

"I hear you, I just... shit." She shook her head tiredly, "Not used to not having reserves or being stuck in place like this."

"I do not believe that any of us are." Thul rumbled from where he was leaning against the wall of our little cave. "All we can do is maintain the honor of our contract, and support this battle to the best of our ability."

"And hopefully survive." Shyeel muttered just loudly enough to be heard.

"Agreed." I sighed, setting the parts and my tools aside. It wasn't like I was going to get anymore of it done at that point. "Faras? Dinner?"

"Almost done." Idas supplied, her other half lapsing into his usual silence now that his mate was here to speak for him. I glanced over to to see them resting their foreheads against each other, though Faras was still stirring something in a small pot.

Dietrich grunted, his long beard bristling a bit as he leaned over another pot on a hot plate. "Don't worry Cie, I used some of our spices for ours."

"Good..." The word trailed off as I got a better smell of what they were making, "That broth again?"

The other human present shrugged. "We tossed in some of that meat, plus those nutrient capsules. Figured I'd use the rest of the bread too, there's supposed to be another supply drop tonight so we can restock in the morning."

I waved a hand in permission, and a few minutes later we were all drinking scalding hot soup and chasing it with thick slices of Batarian-style bread. It wasn't much of a meal, and even with the salt and other additives that they'd added, didn't taste all that great. But it was hot, and it was food, and I was too hungry and tired to care what it tasted like.

"Think there will be another push tomorrow ape?" Trena grunted as she set her empty bowl aside.

"Doubt it." I mumbled around a piece of bread before swallowing, "Not in this sector anyway. If they're smart they'll throw more people onto that push on the left, try and roll it back. That's Mirala's problem though, her and those crazy Verse Ninety-Seven fuckers are stuck out there."

Scales nodded, then let out a massive yawn. "Right... fuck talking shop, time to sleep."

There was a rumble of assent from more or less everyone at that. Waving everyone to their alcoves and make-shift beds, I handled the clean-up from dinner with Illyan's help. By the time we'd gotten all of the cutlery, pots, and bowls put away, everyone besides Voya looked to have already collapsed into sleep.

"I have first watch." The Quarian had collected her weapons, and was preparing to head back out into the trench. "Shyeel will be up next. When can we expect Washana?"

"No idea." I admitted quietly. "Giver her an hour, then relay another call through the hospital."

She nodded and then ducked out of our little home. We hadn't seen any infiltrators trying to breach the lines yet, and we were reasonably far back in case it did happen, but it was better to be alive than dead.

After she'd gone, I turned back to my own bed, ready to fall into it, only to stop and glare. "Illyan."

The big Asari cracked open one eye, then gave me a sheepish grin. "Sorry boss."

Rather than get up, she simply shuffled herself over, pressing her large frame against the wall and opening enough space for me to lay next to her.

"Not what I meant." I continued to glower. "I don't remember inviting you to sleep next to me."

"That's good boss, I don't remember asking either." There was a soft grunt, then a long arm snapped out and grabbed my chest plate. I thought about breaking her hold, but decided it was far easier to let her haul me down and into the bed with her. "Now shut up and fall asleep."

"Since when..." I broke the sentence with a long yawn, grabbing part of the blanket and rolling it onto her armored shoulder to make a pillow. "...do you give _me_ orders?"

"Since right now boss." Her arm slid around me and pulled my armored form against hers in a muted clatter, her other hand pulling a thin blanket over us. "I'll try not to wake you up when it's my turn on watch."

I settled my head onto her shoulder, then frowned as my sluggish brain worked out something. "You're watch is after Shy's."

"And you're on top of me." I saw her lips tug into a grin as she shimmied a bit, getting comfortable. "Don't think she'll risk waking you now that you're finally sleeping at night."

"Bitch." I muttered with another yawn, closing my eyes as I did. "Double-watch tomorrow."

"Worth it." She rumbled quietly. If she said anything else, it was lost as I promptly dropped into a deep, dreamless haze of sleep.

* * *

_**Communications Logs: Spectre Offices, Citadel** _

_Date & Sender: 9-14-83, Shepard, Kaya_

_Receiver: -redacted address; Terminus -_

_Communications check. Kean, I'm still waiting for your response on the latest request I sent you._

* * *

_Date & Sender: 9-17-83, Shepard, Kaya_

_Receiver: -redacted address; Terminus -_

_Communications check. Kean. Respond if you are receiving this message._

* * *

_Date & Sender: 9-24-83, Shepard, Kaya_

_Receiver: -redacted address; Terminus -_

_Communications check. Any member of the Silver Blades mercenary unit, please respond to this message._

* * *

_Date & Sender: 9-24-83, Shepard, Kaya_

_Receiver: Vasir, Spectre Offices_

_Tela, I can't raise Kean or any other member of the unit he's in. I need a check from your contacts, are they still on Redcliffe? Any reports that they were KIA?_

* * *

_Date & Sender: 9-24-83, Vasir, Tela_

_Receiver: Shepard, Spectre Offices_

_Kaya, last I heard they were still operational. We're meeting for that shit on Bekenstein anyway, I'll see what I can get for you by then, in exchange for the usual payment. At a real restaurant this time, I'm not letting you trick me again._

* * *

_**Next up is Operation: Verdun III** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little short of a chapter, mostly a primer for the next pair of chapters and the interlude that is going to follow. We also finally have a return of the post-chapter section, in this case a communications log to start teasing something that will get clearer as we approach the interlude. Also, holy voting batman. Already have thirty-four votes in, with the following tally:
> 
> Voya – 14
> 
> Sederis – 14
> 
> Illyan – 6
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	37. Operation: Verdun III

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

**Operation: Verdun III**

_Date: 10-11-2183_

_Location: Capital Front, Redcliffe, Feralda System, Northern Terminus_

* * *

"The good news is that it missed your eyes by a few a millimeters. With the claws, at least. The swelling from the punches should go down in a few hours." Washana murmured, leaning right into my face as she carefully dabbed medigel into the cuts. "Now we just have to hope it doesn't get infected sir."

I glared at her with my right eye, my left currently swollen shut. "What have I told you about calling me sir?"

"Not to." She rolled a shoulder as she worked, frowning a little. "At least a few hundred times sir. Honestly, I have to wonder why you bother saying it when evidence suggests I'm going to continue offering you respect sir. Now please stay still so I can check on your other wounds."

Grunting, I held myself still as she lowered herself a bit, warm, scaled hands touching the skin of my chest as she worked. I tried not to look too closely at the collage of bruises and cuts that covered my pale skin, especially over my left ribs. Looking in the other direction wasn't an improvement, my right leg stretched out with a thick brace around my ankle and shin to keep it all locked into place.

I had just settled on staring at the curtain wall of the medical tent when it shuddered, flapping open to reveal Dietrich's lumbering form silhouetted by the driving rain outside. Teeth gleamed in his wild, unkempt beard as he caught sight of me. Water ran down him in rivers, but at least he closed the heavy tarp behind him to stop more of the cold liquid from getting inside. "Cie, finally let a woman take your clothes off I see."

Washsana flushed a little, pointedly focusing on taping bandages to pieces of my chest while I glared at him. My armor had long been removed, along with my shirt, leaving me only in a pair of pants that were as in dire need of a wash as my body was. "Deet. Don't make me shoot you."

He barked out a laugh, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. "How bad is he Washana?"

"Cosmetic cuts on his face, but the Vorcha missed his eye. Not deep enough to threaten anything." She reported, still working. "The emergency barrier in his chest plate stopped that carnage round, barely. He's got severe bruising, including internal ones on his ribs, and fragments of his armor got some nice gouges when it shattered. Oh, and his right ankle is sprained from something, he has no idea when it happened."

"No internal bleeding?" The larger human blinked in surprise. "He was really out of it on the way back."

"Concussion from getting his head slammed into the ground repeatedly by an angry Batarian." The medic replied. "Associated bruising on the back of his head, but his skull didn't break thank the goddess. Sorry, I thought that was assumed."

His eyes flicked to mine. "Recovery?"

"If we weren't in a war?" I asked, my voice low to avoid putting any extra strain on my ribs. "Couple months of lounging with lots of painkillers and gentle rehab."

Massive arms crossed. "And since we are in a war?"

" _Lots_ of painkillers." I stressed the first word. "Figure a week off my feet before I upgrade to fire-step duty."

"Two." Washana muttered.

"One off the line." I replied tiredly. "At least two not going on any more raids. Assuming there's going to be any for a while after last night's debacle. How's everyone else? Shyeel out of surgery yet?"

He nodded, sighing. "She'll make it, but she's going to need more than a week. I don't think she's leaving the medical bunker for the duration."

Goddess. Hanging my head slightly, I exhaled heavily, winced a little, then shook it. "She's alive at least."

"Half of us wouldn't be if you two idiots hadn't rushed into that dugout like you did." Dietrich apparently felt the need to try and improve my morale a bit. "You did good Cie. And fuck if watching you take on those assholes in hand-to-hand wasn't impressive to see."

"My concussion argues otherwise, barely remember you and Illyan dragging me out of there." I muttered, then frowned as another thought occurred to me. "Please tell me you at least brought my helmet back after that asshole ripped it off?"

"Relax, Trena got it and your carbine." He assured me. "Said something about not wanting to see all your work wasted. More cursing, of course, but along those lines."

I snorted out a laugh, then immediately winced. Washana paused her work to glare up at me, and I nodded to show that I understood not to do that again. At least until I had stronger painkillers in me. "Everyone else?"

"Callada's a bit out of it, concussion but the other medics say she should be all right. The Kithans are in the walking wounded, a few fragments from that artillery shell got through their armor and cracked some of their plates. Idas says it hurts like hell but isn't dangerous." His left arm rose, letting me see the bandaging poking out of the armor on his left wrist. "Got my own souvenir from that explosion, missed the artery, but not by all that much. Everyone else is beat up and exhausted as shit, but all right apart from that. Thul's got them on the support line right now, Major Kaste asked him to."

I frowned a little. "We better still be rotating back to the reserve line today. We need a fucking break, it's been a month."

"We are, she just wanted a bit of extra support in case those fuckers try anything while the Fifty-Seventh is rotating companies."

Some of the tension eased out of me at the assurance, and I nodded. "I don't suppose..."

His beard bristled as his face twisted into a scowl. "Thul tried to press her, but she wouldn't or couldn't say why we're under the blackout."

My own lips twisted. It had taken us a week to realize we were even under one, and so far all I'd gotten out of the elder Kaste was that he had orders to restrict all external communications to military chatter. No fucking reason why, or for what reason. Even our news about the rest of the campaign was coming in filtered, which meant I didn't trust it in the slightest.

Even better, both of the communications trucks we had with had evidently had their extranet access disabled, forcing all of our transmissions to go through the main communications hub back in Hintertown. Since those assholes were currently blocking off all of our requests, it left us with no fucking idea of how Ayle and Amy were doing in their own investigations. Never mind the personal shit, like Trena's messages to Ghai or Illyan's to Erana. Or mine to Shepard, who was probably losing her shit at me not getting her the intel she asked for.

"I'm going to hunt down that old Turian and break his fucking mandibles off." I muttered before glancing down at Washana. "Am I good to walk?"

Her youthful features glanced up at me, an arch look on her face. "Want to rephrase that sir? You shouldn't be moving for at least the rest of the day."

I rolled my eyes. "Are you done patching me up?"

"Yes." She admitted reluctantly. "Dietrich? He's going to need his cane if he's going to be up and around."

"Figured." A hand reached behind him and pulled the weaponized stick off of his back. Giving it a single twirl, he offered it grip first to me. "Heavy thing."

"That's the point." I took it, planted it onto the ground and exhaled. This part wasn't going to be fun. Washana rose before I could start moving, and planted both of her hands on my chest. Not with pressure to keep me from moving, but gently, making it clear she was there to support me when it inevitably got difficult.

It did so in the first moments, my everything hurting as I tried to use my cane to lever myself up. Without the young Maiden I probably wouldn't have managed to get up at all, and I leaned heavily on her when I was finally on my feet.

No sooner had I managed to do so, and was gathering myself to make the attempt at walking, when the flap flung itself open again. Three tall figures entered, taking their bloody time about it, Dietrich shifting to make room for them while his expression shifted to a bland frown.

"I see you're awake, Reyja'krem." Commander-General Kaste rumbled from his place in the center, the Turian staff drone on his left working to shake out and collapse the umbrella that had kept his boss's hide dry. "And in good humor, or do you always work threats against your commanding officer into casual conversation?"

A muscle in my cheek twitched. "I don't appreciate being listened in on, Kaste."

"I don't appreciate being threatened, Kean." He retorted, mandibles quivering slightly. "Not when I know you meant your words."

I placed both hands on my cane, doing my best to look as though I wasn't resting all of my weight on it. "Then maybe you shouldn't keep me in the dark, _General._ "

His eyes narrowed at the scorn I put into his title. "What happened to your honor, and respect?"

"Athame's ass Kaste," I shook my head tiredly, "I respect the crap out of you, but I preferred it when you were a bloody Colonel. You actually _answered_ my questions then."

The old Turian simply stared at me. "I have my orders. As do you."

"My orders come from Ayle, and she gets them from the Lady Warlord." I reminded him. "The last I knew my orders were to support the 121st in the campaign until it was over or we were released to hunt for Krom. But I have no idea what my orders are currently supposed to be given that you aren't letting me contact either of them. For all I know Krom has already smuggled himself past the blockade and T'Ravt wants us chasing him."

"Unlikely." He remarked.

I dipped my head to acknowledge the point, "But possible. The point is that I'm a mercenary who suddenly can't contact his employer. Of course I'm fucking annoyed."

Well, it was more that I couldn't contact Ayle, but being unable to message T'Ravt made for a better excuse. Kaste wasn't an idiot, he probably knew what I was really upset about, but he only let out a chirping sigh and shook his head. "I haven't heard any updates about the assassin, or any direct orders from the Lady Warlord. General Mascal has setup blackouts over all three operational theaters, only top-level commanders are to relay vital communications."

Dietrich let out an annoyed rumble. "The traitor is dead, what the fuck is he worried about?"

"The loss of the Intelligence and Electronics Warfare teams leaves central headquarters vulnerable to the enemy's hacking attempts once again." He supplied. "The less coded chatter they have to try and read, the longer it will take them to break it."

"That's a nice excuse." I shook my head. "But it doesn't cover why I can't even send an encoded tablet on the supply shuttles."

The recently promoted General stared back at me implacably. "Everyone besides the Reyja'krem, please leave the tent."

Behind him, his two Turian staff members both glanced at him, then each other. Neither looked happy, but they obediently turned around and stepped back out into the rain. Dietrich and Washana pointedly did not move, even when the General glanced at each of them in turn. The former crossed his arms firmly, looking like he was prepared to wait for hours if it was required.

I waited until I was sure that Kaste had gotten the point before I grunted, carefully lowering myself back to the medical table. "You guys get out of here, I'll call if I need help walking back."

If anything Washana looked even less thrilled than Kaste's people had, but she dutifully fell in with the bearded man as the two of them headed out, the flap door closing behind them.

"Are you done being an ass now?" Kaste chirped, his voice annoyed as he pulled a flask from his belt. "I understand you feel the need to impress your subordinates but it's unseemly for one of your rank to act as you do."

"I'll be done being an ass when you stop publicly keeping me in the dark." I growled, holding out a hand and taking the preferred drink from him. "I still don't understand why you insist on keeping this private."

"Because I swore an oath, on my honor, to the Lady Warlord to serve in her army." He replied tiredly. "And I am stretching my sense of propriety enough by evading my orders as it is."

Unscrewing the flask's top, I took a soft sniff. Illium Rum. I immediately threw it back, the bitter burn utterly delicious as it trailed down my throat. "You got a message back from Ayle then?"

There was a tired nod as he pulled a separate flask from his belt, taking a quick sip from it. "I did. According to her, all off-world communications are being routed through Mascal's new communications officer. They actually flew a frigate out to the system's FTL buoy to manually install a gate, and the ship is staying nearby it just in case. The official reports from the other fronts are apparently accurate, the pushes are proceeding slowly but steadily."

Frowning, I took a slower sip from the liquor he'd given me. "Then what the fuck is Mascal doing?"

The old Turian shook his head and sighed. "I have no idea. The initial acts, consolidating our communications, made sense. But these additional precautions... there was no alarming war news from other campaigns that I heard of, and the Warlord was safe on Xentha."

I kept frowning at him. "You have a theory?"

"Outright betrayal seems unlikely. He is the lord of a mid-sized city upon Xentha, has his own mansion complex in Celthani, is more than well compensated for his position, and has been loyal to Lady T'Ravt for decades." His mandibles twitched into the Turian version of a wan smile. "There is also the small fact that the campaign obviously continues."

"Yeah." I exhaled. "Fair point. So he's loyal, he's been competent up to this point, and he has a reasonable excuse for the localized blackout. You think he's lying to her maybe? Making the campaign sound better than it is, and making sure no one can contradict him?"

Kaste looked uncomfortable. "It is... the most likely scenario I can envision."

I snorted quietly. "How far behind schedule is he?"

"No timetable was assigned to this campaign, the Warlord knew it would be long and hard. But with the amount of forces he has been given..." His voice trailed off, letting me complete the thought.

"She probably expects better progress than he's been making." Taking a final pull of the alcohol, I capped the flask and asked my next question. "And he doesn't want to alarm her so he's shutting down anyway that people, especially us mercs, could get information to her. Fucking vain prick. Ayle say anything else?"

"That they are still investigating." A hand accepted the flask when I held it back to him, but his eyes narrowed slightly. "Though she declined to say what."

"Unit matters." I dismissed his concern with a wave of my right hand. "Checking into those lowborn who tried to jump me and Mirala, nothing you need to worry about."

"Very well then." The General grunted quietly, returning both flasks to his belt. "Now to the official reason I'm here. Your report on the morning's raid."

I seriously considered asking for the flask back, that wasn't a topic I was eager to talk about. Not in the immediate aftermath of the event in any case. It had been our third raid in as many weeks, and the fiasco it had ended in was all the more infuriating because it had been, by far, the least dangerous of the three.

Raid number one had been Kaste's idea, and I had to give the old man credit for a ballsy plan. We, plus the other two mercenary teams, had painted up our armor and adjusted the style to match those of the enemy's militia. Then we'd lingered in the support trenches, waiting for them to launch a full attack against our lines. After they had, we'd moved up and joined the general retreat when the assault was beaten back.

Which had only been the most nerve-wracking few minutes of my life, since it wasn't as though the troopers in the trenches behind us could stop shooting, and we had to stay to the rear in case things went to shit so we'd have some kind of chance of getting away. Athame or the paragons who stood upon the Pillars were watching over us that evening, because we managed to get to the enemy lines, apparently just another group pulling back from the failed strike. Then we'd started tossing incendiary grenades in every direction and generally causing as much chaos as we could. A combination of demo charges and a called-in artillery barrage had served to cover our retreat.

Raid number two had been come with a heavy dose of distraction. Artillery pounded the enemy lines in a two kilometer stretch for three days straight, to the point where guns were firing in rotation to prevent them from melting from the heat of it. It had been followed with a massive barrage of smoke rounds into no-man's land... and then seven small teams had struck out at other parts of the line, each no more than a platoon in size, each hitting parts that the observers and scouts had believed to have had their defenders reduced to prepare for the hammer blow we were obviously gearing up to throw.

It had been a bit rougher, but we'd had a solid squad backing us, and everyone had gotten out relatively intact.

Unlike last night.

Blowing out a breath, I nodded at the General. "We kicked off the operation at one in the morning. Artillery started up their distraction barrage a bit late, maybe ten after, but within the parameters. Once the shells were flying we set out into no-man's land. The 54th Xenthan sent their assigned platoon with us, they stopped in a ditch forty meters out and setup to cover us."

"How many heavy weapons did they carry?"

My face pulled into a frown as I tried to fight through the haze the concussion had left me with. "One heavy machine gun, two lighter models. They didn't have a sniper, so we left Voya with them."

He nodded, then made a motion for me to continue.

Swallowing, I did so. "We approached the line by stealth, our guess about their night vision gear being crap was right. They didn't react until we were throwing grenades and making our sprint in. First five or ten minutes went as planned, Thul and his team held the right flank, mine took out our target gun nest. Things went to shit when Trena tried to take out their target nest, there was a dugout near it. They hit it with grenades, focused on their target. Stupid thing turned out to be a tunnel connects to the goddess alone knows where."

His mandibles flicked outwards once. "How rapidly did they respond?"

"Very." I sighed, then winced as the heavy exhale put pressure on my bruised ribs. "My team was closer, we got there just as Trena exhausted herself biotically keeping a barrier up to protect the Kithans. I tried to use tech mines to suppress them while Callada kept up a singularity to protect our flank."

"I take it that did not work?"

"It did initially. We got Trena up and stumbling, and were in the process of withdrawing when more reinforcements showed up, probably from another fucking tunnel." Reaching up with my right hand, I carefully indicated my face. "Wasn't time for a good plan so Shyeel and I counter-charged to clear a path while the Kithans kept them off our backs. Things... got a little blurry after that."

"From what Ul Adaara told me, the pair of you didn't hold off a swarm of militia and Vorcha, you drove it back nearly thirty meters and were nearly to the enemy's front line when you fell."

The honest admiration in his voice made me both flush and flinch a little. Vague, jumbled memories of close-quarters combat flashed across my vision. Shyeel and I, both hurt, both bleeding, trying to shoot, punch, and bayonet our way through a dark trench while Callada hauled Trena's stumbling form behind us. "I think he was exaggerating. We surprised them, got a bit lucky, and if Thul, Dietrich, and Illyan hadn't hit them at just the right time they'd have executed us both while we were down."

"The last is true, perhaps." Kaste shook his head. "But I do not believe him capable of exaggeration. How else do you explain that they recovered the pair of you on the enemy's firesteps?"

"I..." My head shook a little. "Fine, maybe Shyeel and I did make that far. We still almost got torn apart in the end. Then almost got killed by our own bloody artillery."

His mandibles flared in a brief grin, though his tone remained sober. "Was it Aldaara's decision or yours to call the artillery down while you were still withdrawing?"

"His, pretty sure. I don't really remember that part like I said." I shrugged one shoulder in a rolling, Asari motion. "Approve of it in hindsight. We would have been shot to pieces, even in the dark, without some kind of distraction. Even if it did almost kill a few of us. From what I've been told, we got moving during the barrage, stumbled back to the covering platoon. They more or less picked us all up and hauled us back like luggage and called down more artillery to make sure no one followed us."

The General nodded slowly, turning and beginning a slow series of paces back and forth across the tent. "A wise precaution, though it was the mention of tunnels that worries me."

I tried to track him without moving my head, but with only one eye the traditional Batarian pose of neutrality wasn't an option, and my chest hurt to much to rotate at the waist, so I actually had to turn my neck to follow the movement. "You think they're going to try and burrow under us?"

"I have seismometers in place, but no. I fear it's more likely that they are intended to do exactly what they did." He exhaled, an annoyed and tight sound. "Provide rapid reinforcements from unexpected angles. Any attack could bog down rather rapidly if they were intelligent about the placement."

My own nose flared a little. "And it lets them keep their reserves underground, deep enough that our lighter guns can't get to them."

"And it matches the slow down in their general attack patterns." Kaste nodded. "They're establishing in-depth defenses that will make any attack even more difficult than it already would be. Reports from the flanks indicate they're actually reinforcing gun positions with heavy construction materials and eezo pylons."

"Settling in the for the long haul." I assumed with another slight shrug. "Let's us catch our breath, if nothing else."

"While making our mandate of attrition more difficult." The Turian pointed out.

"I'm broken up about that." Sarcasm may or may not have been dripping in my voice. "So unbelievably upset. How long can you stall Mascal?"

His mandibles twitched a little. "Until whatever insiders he has in our units, and I must assume there are some, inform him that I am not attacking the enemy. Perhaps a week or two, if the enemy's attacks stop entirely."

"And when you get a direct order to attack?" I asked quietly.

"Honor demands I follow said order." Kaste's voice lowered to something solemn. "But I will endeavor to do so as intelligently as possible."

The fingers on my hands briefly tightened around the table's edge, then relaxed as I forced them to. "We're outnumbered by an order of magnitude, Kaste. Superior equipment and training doesn't matter much. Shit, we're lucky their artillery is content to waste it's time on counter-battery operations instead of hammering us every-time we twitch."

"This is not my first war, Kean." He reminded me, but there was no reproof in his voice, only a firm reminder. "My prior statements stand."

Another tight exhale hurt, but the pain helped me focus as I nodded. I couldn't change who the old Turian was. If Mascal ordered him to launch a suicidal charge, Kaste's old fashioned Xenthan honor would demand he make the attempt. He'd delay, plan, and do everything he could to make it less suicidal, but in the end he'd do it.

"I understand," I spoke after several breaths of silence had passed, "If it comes to that, see if you can get our power armor transferred out here. And if I can help in the planning stages... it's been a while since I've done anything larger than a squad, but I'd like to be involved all the same."

"Of course." There was a polite bow of his head. "I'll ensure that you are on the reserve lines for at least a full week, make the most of it."

I grunted, and then he was turning away without another word. A flash of lightning through the open flap later, then I was alone with my injuries for all of thirty seconds before it was flung open violently, spraying me with water.

"Cieran." Trena's voice was low, her posture a bit slumped as she shuffled in. Unlike the rest of us, she was still in her 'night raid' outfit. Which really made it sound more impressive than it actually was. Her armor was covered in mud and dirt, trying to cover up the streaks of metal where the paint had flaked or been scratched away, and over-top of that was a dark cloak that we'd stitched together from blank blankets.

Similar cloth had covered our guns on the way in, doing everything we could considering our available supplies to minimize the chance that someone would see us in the darkness.

Right on my old friend's heels was Washana, the younger, taller Asari irritably closing the flap behind them though it was Trena who spoke again. "Athame's ass, you look like crap."

My only functioning eye rolled. "You _always_ think I look like crap scales, how does me being beaten up change that?"

She snorted. "I meant that matted shit you call fur. In comparison to that the bruises are a fucking improvement."

I blinked slowly, then made a show of glancing at Washana. "Did you hear something talking? I swore I heard a tiny, annoying little voice bitching again."

The Maiden managed, barely, kept her face straight. "You must be hearing things again sir, I don't see anyone else in here."

"I will fucking kill you both." Trena muttered, her hands shifting as she tossed a pile of cloth at me. "Here ape, something to keep the rain off your pale ass while we get you back to our hole in the ground."

"Thanks." I murmured, taking it up and then wincing a bit at the motion. "The door keeping the water out?"

"It was sir. Illyan did good work." Washana reported, gabbing the dark fabric from my hands. Unfolding it revealed another crudely sown trench-coat, and she circled the table to help me into it. "Do you need more painkillers?"

"Not right now. Maybe one when we get back."

"Such a whining bitch ape." Trena crossed her arms, somehow looking down her nose at me despite the fact that I was still taller than her even when I was sitting on the low table. Before I could retort, she continued on. "What did that old Turian want?"

"Mission recap." It was a fight to keep my expression neutral as I rose my left arm, letting the Eclipse medic pull a sleeve onto the limb. "And news from Ayle. She's still hunting, and the leading theory is that Mascal is trying to save face."

Her blue lips twisted. "Fucking lovely. Any chance he's going to do more than pass messages once every couple of weeks?"

"Doubt it." My own mouth drew into a thin line. "We might be attacking in the near future scales. Couple of weeks at most, unless the Krogan running that fortress loses his mind and decides to attack us all out."

Her expression hardened, but she didn't look shocked. "Told you it was a matter of time ape."

"You did." Not that it mattered, and Trena knew it. "How bad is my gear?"

"Guess." Arms crossed her chest. "We're going to have a lot of work ahead of us ape, and that's just to be prepped for time on the support line. It's going to be a fucking bitch to get everything fixed up enough to be on the front again. And you can fucking forget attacking unless you, me, and Illyan take the next three weeks to do nothing but fix crap."

I exhaled as Washana finished helping me into the coat, then grabbing my cane in my right hand once again. "Then help me up, sooner I'm asleep the sooner I'll wake up and we can get started... I don't know if we've got three weeks."

As it turned out, we did. Three weeks to the day from the failed raid, the first full attack went out from our lines, and we were in the fucking middle of it.

* * *

_**Next up is Operation: Verdun IV** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the slog continues, injuries are piling up, and they at least have a working theory as to why they're under a communications blackout. Next chapter will cover their attempt at a direct attack on the enemy's defenses, though how involved Cie will personally be given his current state is something we'll have to wait and see about.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	38. Operation: Verdun IV

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

**Operation: Verdun IV**

_Date: 11-02-2183_

_Location: Capital Front, Redcliffe, Feralda System, Northern Terminus_

* * *

I leaned over the battered holotable, reaching out to tap an icon. "We need support here, have the mortar batteries commence a box barrage of sector sixty-one."

"Reyja'krem." The Batarian officer on my right bowed his head, his omni-tool already flashing as he transmitted the order to the light artillery working to support the attack.

"And tell Captain ul Vriy to get his reserve formation moving." Colonel Nara ul Thui shook her head from her spot across the table from me. "If he can't silence those nests this entire attack is going got fall apart before we even get Second Company moving."

The Colonel was... an odd little woman, especially for a Batarian military commander. For one, she was only five-seven, which was tiny by Batarian standards. For another, she was a lowborn, a former teacher from the Scientist Caste of all things, who'd managed to climb the ranks on her own merits. She, like her subordinates around us, was in armor rather than a uniform, though like everyone's it was now the color of dry dirt rather than the original off-white. Her helmet was on the holotable beside her, within easy grabbing range, revealing a round, almost cute face the same teal color that Nynsi's was.

She was also my current commanding officer, by Kaste's orders.

I'd protested it strenuously, and not at all politely, but at the end of the day the old Turian had had a fucking point. Three weeks wasn't enough to heal my damaged ankle, or the deep bone bruises on my ribcage. Especially since I'd been constantly working or standing time in the support trench's fire-steps rather than taking it easy and trying to recover. I could move around all right, and fire from a standing position, but I needed a lot of fucking pain killers to manage just that much. Even if I had gone with the Blades on our assigned mission, I'd have been a supporting gun at best. A vulnerable, easily wounded one at worst.

So instead of being out engaged in the fighting, I was seconded to the 54th Xenthan, a second-line unit on the near-right flank. My official role was somewhat nebulous. Officially I was to advise and support ul Thui, given that her second in command had gotten hit by a sniper the week prior. Unofficially she had more or less told everyone to treat me as if I _was_ her second in command.

The fun of being a bloody Reyja'krem assigned to a Batarian-majority regiment. But at least the Colonel was attractive.

I stared blankly at nothing, and then rubbed furiously at my face as my active brain realized what I'd just thought.

"Reyja'krem?" She asked, all four eyes narrowing. "Is something wrong?"

"No." My head shook a little, "Stray thoughts is all. How's the primary assault going?"

Her lips pressed into a thin line. "It is proceeding."

"That well?" I grunted, exhaling a heavy breath.

Nara glanced around around at her subordinates rather pointedly, then stepped back and away from the holotable. Grunting, I quickly shifted around it, dodging the other officers crammed into the underground command post, and followed her into a corner free of both equipment and people.

"They've reached marker five." She kept her voice low, to avoid demoralizing everyone else, her head carefully held in a respectfully neutral position. "Only in one sector."

I had to bite my tongue to stop from wincing. "They were supposed to be at marker ten by now."

"Yes." A hiss of breath escaped between her teeth, a brief display of nerves that she quickly controlled. "Enemy counter-battery fire is keeping the primary batteries out of the fight, and the plan relied heavily on the flowing barrage to keep overland reinforcements at bay."

"Shit." Air whistled between my own teeth in irritation. "What about the tunnels?"

"Your team and the other mercenaries have closed seven of them. I have no updates on any casualties," She added the second bit before I could ask, "I would have told you."

"Thanks." I nodded to the left in thanks, then turned my torso to glance back at the holo-table. "You think we need to press harder?"

"I think we're about to receive orders to that effect regardless of what I think." The Colonel's upper eyes flicked to meet mine, while her lower set glanced at the table I'd just looked at. "If we commit our own artillery we can send Fourth company across the lines on our right side to expand the engagement."

I pursed my lips and thought furiously. It had been a while since I'd had to plan an engagement larger than a squad level fight, a very long while in fact, and I was still trying to shake some of the rust off. That I'd never done anything on this scale before wasn't helping. Directing entire companies of soldiers around wasn't the same thing as managing the Shaaryak security forces. "That commits three of the five companies, leaves only the Second as a realistic reserve. They can't cover the entire line if we extended it."

While the Fifth company was a company of soldiers, they were by and large the logistical and support detachment for the regiment. Cooks, engineers, mechanics, medics, that kind of thing. They were all veteran soldiers at this point, but the fact of the matter was they were more valuable supporting everyone else rather than standing on the line. Or worse, joining the attack.

"Committing the Fourth to the existing attack won't do anything besides supply more men to be torn apart by the sandstorm." She pointed out.

"Fair point." I acknowledged quietly. "Do we push the Fifth onto the line?"

"Yes." Nara started moving towards the table again, and I fell into place on her left. "Place them on the right to take the Fourth's position, it will anchor our lines with-"

She didn't get a chance to finish the words before the walls abruptly shuddered around us, dirt falling from the ceiling, and the freaking ground bucked as though an earthquake had just struck. I grabbed at the Colonel, keeping her upright, then almost snarled in pain when she staggered into my left side when another heavy blast struck nearby.

Shoving my pain aside, I shouted over the sudden cries of alarm and confusion. "Sitrep! Now!"

As usual, the sound of someone who knew what they were doing, or at least was pretending to, was enough to restore some level of order. The communications officer replied even as he yanked his helmet over his head. "First and Third Companies both report heavy-counter attacks! Captain Vriy is consolidating their positions!"

Another staff officer shouted, his later words cutting over the prior's report. "The 70th is reporting a heavy advance on their front!"

The Colonel and I had reached the table around then, grabbing our own headgear from where it was resting on the holographic displays and pulling them on even as another heavy artillery strike nearly sent us to the floor.

"The 70th has no artillery!" I swore, "It was transferred to support the main attack!"

"Direct Fifth company to their reserve lines!" Nara barked the order, "Inform Colonel Nial'za that I am dispatching them!"

"Tell Vriy to fuck consolidation!" I snapped at the other man, my mind already whirling back to the other problem. "If the 70th is getting hit his entire right flank is fucking open! They need to pull back before the enemy sets up to cut them apart while they're on the surface!"

Both men began repeating the orders, having to shout them as artillery continued to crash above our position. On my left, the Colonel grabbed onto the table, staring at it through her helmet. "Shit. The 15th is getting hit too."

I glanced at the left side of our lines, the regiment on that side flickering as its own officers translated their own problems into the tactical network. Enemy markings began appearing, but it wasn't the heavy rush occurring on the right. In strength, but... shit. Even as I watched several markers updated again, showing where heavy machine guns were suddenly being reported. They must have hauled them with, out into shell craters, and were using them to pin down our comrades on that side.

Keeping their own attack's flank clear.

"They were fucking waiting for us to attack them." I all but snarled as the wave hit the beach. "That's why the haven't launched any raids in the last couple of weeks. They were saving up the reserves to blunt our attack, then hit us back at the same time."

And we were just the unlucky sector targeted... or they'd used their tunnels to shift their people around, aiming to hit us right where we were launching a spoiling attack, where we would be the least prepared to withstand a heavy blow.

"Irrelevant." The Colonel snapped. "Focus on the now Reyja'krem!"

"Right." I shook my head. Dammit. I couldn't get fucking distracted. "We need to cover the retreat. Fourth could swing onto the right, Second on the left."

"That leaves no one in the trench-line." She growled, then shook herself. "Which won't matter if we lose two of our companies. Send the orders. Direct our artillery to do everything they can to support the retreat, give Captain Vriy local command of the battery. And shift the mortars to cover the right flank."

The orders were again relayed, and then we were stuck becoming little more than observers who occasionally snapped top-level decisions. Which was about as shitty as I remembered it being, back when I'd been stuck in Nynsi's mansion and been forced to watch as other people conducted the missions I'd helped plan. I might not have actively enjoyed being out there with my life on the line, but it still felt... _wrong_ to be here instead of out there.

We snapped off a report to Kaste, our own probably joining other panicked reports flooding into his own headquarters bunker. His own response was short, and expected: Hold the line at all costs.

Not that we really had a choice. Nearly all of the reserves had been committed to allow for the main thrust, and the remainder had been dispersed to support the dozen other spoiling attacks. Our own hadn't been assigned any first-rate units in such a fashion, there just weren't enough of them to go around. Especially given that we were attacking a numerically superior foe, Kaste had needed everyone he could to maximize the chance of success for his attack.

But it left us defending a static position with nothing behind us but a few kilometers of open savannah before it dried out to a desert. If the line was breached, Zaen's army would be able to pour up and down our lines in either direction, rendering our primary trenches entirely pointless. Shit, given our relative location, their own plan was probably to cut our lines right about where we and the 70th were. Then they could hold the main body of our army off, and leave the five regiments out on the flank to be killed in detail.

I wasted maybe thirty or so seconds analyzing and considering that, and then remembering that the only thing I should have been thinking about was the fight right in front of us.

Which... wasn't going well.

"We need to get people into the trenches." I shook my head. "And fast."

Nara grunted. "The Second?"

"Leaves our flank in the open... fuck it, they aren't pressing hard on the left, and if we don't get people into place they're just going to roll right in after our guys."

"Order the Second to begin a withdrawal, at double time." She growled, a subordinate quickly relaying it. "Order Captain ul Haok to man the front trench, and to pass everyone else to the supporting line as they arrive."

The communications officer was in the middle of sending off that order when another heavy artillery strike came down. But this one wasn't a near hit that made us stumble, or sent more dirt drifting into the air.

This one hit more or less right on top of us.

Now, a fully developed bunker, deep enough underground, would have been able to withstand even the distant fortress's heavy guns. But we weren't exactly overflowing with the heavy constructive equipment and materials required to make such things. There might have been three or four locations in our entire line that could have withstood a heavy round. Kaste's primary command center, the primary medical center, and a couple of supply depots that held our own ordinance.

Notice that the regimental command post I was inside of was not included in that list.

I don't remember much of the immediate moments after. Human brains aren't really wired to be able to process things that happen that quickly, and the shock of the blast didn't improve things. All my eyes could tell me was a confusing blur of crap: A flash of fire, dirt falling, blue energy flaring from eezo pylons desperately trying to keep us alive. My other senses didn't tell me much either. There was a roar that nearly defeaned me, a whole lot of pain from being thrown into the ground, and other people screaming in surprise and pain.

And then I was outside, gasping, an arm around the communications guy, the Colonel on his other side as we hauled him into the trench.

I staggered as we set him down, letting him sit and recover his wits, then I glanced around and behind us. There had been a dozen or so other officers inside, but I could only see two others gasping and leaning against the trench's walls.

One more person shuffled out of the thrown open door behind us, and then there was a low rumbling sound and a rush of dust as the bunker finished collapsing.

"Sacred pillars." Nara breathed, gasping for air through her helmet.

"Yeah..." My own breath was coming too rapidly, the painkillers I'd taken this morning not quite up to the task of covering the pain as my ribs ached. "Athame's ass. That was... close."

"Yes...we..." She shook herself, trying to regain a proper posture. "We need coordination. More than we can do by simple communications. The reserve command post."

"Right...right." Following her example, I forced my back to straighten and lock into place. "Where is it?"

"The support line, sector sixty." Her helmet shifted to let her regard the others. "You three, get this man to the medical tent, then meet us."

I abruptly realized that the com officer's helmet was cracked, and he wasn't moving much. He was still breathing at least. That was something. I hoped.

"Reyja'krem." The Colonel's tone was of someone repeating herself, and I blinked rapidly and turned to regard her. "Are you all right?"

"Yes, just... shit. Yes." Forcing my shaking left hand around and behind me, I drew my carbine off of my back and expanded the weapon. It still took me a few breaths to refocus myself, but I got my mental ship back on course. "Right, secondary command post. You have a gun?"

She nodded, drawing a pistol and gesturing at a carbine on her back, her voice lowering so only I would hear it. "It's been a while since I've fought as a foot soldier."

"Then we need to get going."

Nara agreed with me, and we got moving through the largely empty reserve trenches. She was evidently not as collected as she seemed, because it took her at least as long as I did to realize that we were moving around during an active artillery barrage. Specifically at a barrage intended to hammer troops waiting in our reserve and supporting lines, the enemy likely having no idea that there weren't any.

The Colonel flinched heavily when a heavy round slammed down somewhere far too close for comfort, our armored bodies banging into each other as we staggered. She swore vitriolically, mostly directed at herself.

"If it kills us it kills us." I heard her mutter as we alternated between jogging and staggering as more blasts detonated nearby. "Being in a tiny dugout won't help."

Strictly speaking it would, or at least it would protect us from the shrapnel from a hit inside the trench. But a direct hit would bury, or more likely kill, us just as easily as the shot that had taken out our command post. Since that little fact wouldn't improve matters, and she probably knew it as well as I did, I kept my mouth shut and kept moving as fast as my aching ankle would allow.

We darted right into a communications trench, heading closer to the front down the zig-zagging line. After a minute or so of movement we reached the support line, and she gestured to the left as our radios crackled to life.

" _Colonel!"_ An officer I didn't know spoke in urgent tones, " _Fourth Company is starting to break, berserkers are present!"_

Shit. "Shift all artillery to their location!" I snapped before the Colonel could speak. "Tell them to keep them at range and focus fire!"

There as a startled pause before the man almost stuttered out, " _Y-Yes Reyja'krem!"_

"Do you have a count?" The woman behind me growled as we ran, "How many Krogan are involved?"

There was a longer pause, likely as he passed on the orders before returning to her question, " _Many, Colonel. The leading forces are city militia but there are Blood Pack formations supporting them. Captain Vriy reports they're advancing on any determined points of resistance."_

"Shock troops." I growled. "You said formations? They've got Vorcha with them?"

" _Armored Vorcha."_ A chill went threw my guts at the first word. The only Vorcha that wore armor were old, smart, or both. Veterans, in other words. " _The 70_ _th_ _is reporting difficulties but they are holding... Captain Haok believes the enemy may be shifting in our direction."_

Flowing around the rock of resistance, towards the weak-point of our unit.

Nara was silent for several long steps, then made the only decision she could. "Order all three Captains to detach one formation to cover the withdrawal of the others for as long as they can. All remaining troops are to move at double-time to our lines."

A single beat of silence followed before the Batarian man gravely intoned. " _Yes ma'am."_

I swallowed heavily. Most Warlord commands wouldn't follow an order like that, would never sacrifice themselves to protect the retreat of their comrades. But these soldiers were veterans, who'd been fighting beside one another since this war began. More to the point, they'd been out here, fighting the Blood Pack in the shit-fucking-storm that was this expedition, for months. Fighting an enemy that made a point of executing prisoners up above the trenches so that our observers and snipers could see it happen. Fighting an enemy when our supplies were intermittent enough that grenades had become a precious resource, and good food was now restricted to people in the front trenches.

They'd stay behind to protect their friends' backs, not for the general, or the warlord. And they'd die for it.

Shit. I should have been better at this, helped her come up with a better...

Sucking in a breath, I tightened my grip on my weapon to the point where it physically hurt, trying to keep my hands from shaking. If I had a panic attack now, it would kill me. I had to stay in control.

Forcing my legs to keep moving, I ducked into another communications trench. It carried us around a gun nest, currently occupied by a pair of men who looked like cooks. Stragglers from the Fifth Company, or men that their captain had purposefully left behind to try and help. Probably the latter.

Another minute of trench running brought us to our objective, or rather, where our objective had been.

"Athame's motherfucking azure..." I breathed, staring at the collapsed trench wall where the secondary command post had been. "When the fuck did this happen?"

The Colonel slowed to a stop, panting, but still managing to put a snarl into her voice. "Lieutenant, where are you operating from?"

" _The Artillery plot room."_ He reported at once. " _Have you reached the command post ma'am? We don't have the systems to manage the entire regiment from here."_

"It's a crater." She snapped.

" _But the systems are still on standby!"_ The man protested. " _Still showing on the network!"_

I stared at the collapsed dirt, frowned, and then swore. "Colonel, look there. The hit was right above the door, if the bunker followed the trench to the right it could still be intact. Just buried."

Another vicious oath escaped her. There was no fucking way we could unbury it, not in time to use the computers, holographic tables, and communications routers located inside. "Tell... inform..." She needed a gasping breath before she could force the words out. "Inform General Kaste that our ability to command the situation is compromised, and that I require relief."

If anything, there was an even longer pause than any that had come earlier before the Lieutenant replied. " _Yes ma'am."_

And that was that then. It had cost her something, more than something, to surrender her command that way. Practically speaking it was required, you couldn't manage a full blown battle with nothing but an omni-tool and a radio. The company commanders would be drowning in their own problems, intruding on their forward command positions would throw their own ability to manage the situation into chaos.

Which would be a death sentence for their troops, given the circumstances.

"Where is the nearest fire-step?"

I blinked, then turned to face her. "Pardon?"

She stared back at me through her black visor. "If I cannot command my regiment, I will at least stand on the line with them. Where is the nearest fire-step?"

"Colonel..." My head shook, "You're the fucking Colonel. You need to get back to the artillery station and help-"

"Reyja'krem!" Her voice became a snarl. "You are my subordinate right now, yes?"

"Yes." I might have twitched, more at the reminder than at her tone. "Those gunners could use help, there should be a rifleman's post in the nest with them."

"Then we will move."

And we did, doubling back on our path, reaching the gun nest in short order. It was basically a dirt bunker, slightly elevated to give the gun enough height to shoot over the defenses in front of it without unduly exposing the position. Metal bars had been shoved into the beam of soil protruding above the trench, creating a slit for the gun to shoot through while giving the gunners as much protection as possible.

The men manning the heavy gun were stunned to see us, but maintained enough focus to keep their attention down-range as we slipped around them and onto their right. There the vision slit was extended out a meter or so, with a fire-step in place for a sniper or riflemen to support the gun.

"Have you stood on the line before?" I asked the Colonel quietly, hefting my carbine up to rest the long barrel through our small window.

"No." She admitted, equally quietly. A carbine of the same make as mine was pulled from her back, though it lacked the numerous upgrades I'd crudely worked into mine over the last couple of months. "Advice, Reyja'krem?"

"Be irregular, don't constantly stay in place, that lets snipers focus on you." My ankle was throbbing full time now, and each breath was drawing from a deep ache in my chest. The adrenaline must have helped my already fast metabolism work through the pain killers. Lovely. "We don't have much room to move here, so go all out with your weapon until it overheats, then duck and let it cool. Rinse and repeat."

Nara nodded firmly, and copied my movements and got her weapon into position.

The first several minutes were the worst, because we could see the panicked retreat in all of its glory. Distant figures were running as fast as they could across the blasted and crated landscape of no-man's land, their dirty armor camouflaging them as well as a professional paint-scheme would have. Off on the right, there was an almost constantly, eye-assaulting series of bright orange flashes. The artillery trying to take out the berserkers teams on our right flank.

My visor took a moment to polarize, which I didn't appreciate much, given that it let me see the smaller flickers of gunfire and the tiny figures of the rear-guard.

We got to watch as the remnants of the attacking force, and the companies sent out to help them, hurled themselves into the trenches. Exhausted shouts and orders only occasionally audible as the enemy's artillery kept hitting around, but largely behind, us. The troops would be trying to spread out, to work out who needed to be where, what fire-steps needed to be manned, where reserves needed to be to counter-attack locally.

I tried to focus on that, rather than on what was happening in the distance, the rear-guard slowly buckling against enemies that I couldn't make out.

"Sacred Pillars..." Nara breathed, unable to look away from where her subordinates were dying.

"They honored the Pillars today." I replied quietly. "The Paragons will welcome them."

She was silent for a moment. "Do you really believe that?"

My right shoulder rolled in an Asari shrug before I brought my carbine back against it, staring down the sights as my HUD supplied the targeting reticle. "I'm starting to think that I would like to. Probably Thul's influence, plus this bloody campaign. Or maybe it's just the exhaustion and pain talking."

"You could have just left it at the start." Her tone was almost nervous, but I could tell she was trying for wry. "It would have been better for my morale."

I snorted. "I'm terrible for anyone's morale. You might not have noticed, but I don't have much tact. And I'm kind of an ass."

"At least you're decorative." The Colonel seemed to freeze for a moment, apparently her mouth had gotten ahead of her brain. "I mean.. movement."

Swallowing a teasing retort, my eyes snapped down-range. The last of the soldiers trying to hold back the tide had apparently fallen, because now I could only see figures coming in slow, purposeful motions. They were moving in a fire and advance fashion, portions of units laying out covering fire as others sprinted forwards and then threw themselves to the ground to take over the firing part.

"Ignore the shooters, take out the runners." The words came out in time with my first gunshot. A breather later the heavy gun a meter to our left opened up in long, heavy bursts that sent at least a few enemies to the ground.

The Colonel joined my in firing away, our rifles barking rapidly. I didn't think she hit much, but then again I wasn't exactly an expert marksman either. We contributed, lowering ourselves when our weapons overheated, rising to resume shooting once they were cool enough to do so.

And each time we came up, the enemy was closer.

The troops of the 54th were doing what they could, getting into position, firing away as best they could. But they were exhausted. Half of them had fought their way across no-man's land this morning, fought in the enemy's trenches, and then had to fight their way back after. To say their aim was off was probably being charitable. Athame's ass we were probably lucky most of them had the strength to hold their guns at all.

Our artillery was likewise struggling to stay in the fight. The enemy's over the horizon guns had shifted targets, trying to locate and eliminate our batteries. They had to relocate when one barrage nearly landed on top of them, the enemy walking it in their direction. Which left us with just the lighter mortars, which were punishing the advance, but not nearly enough.

Now and then the Lieutenant came back on, updating his Colonel on what was happening as best as he could. Without the command post's systems he couldn't keep track of everything, and our understanding of the overall battle more or less vanished into just the section we were in.

"Right!" I snarled, "They're rushing!"

The machine gunners swung their coolant fed weapon around as the Colonel and I fired until our guns locked up. Maybe a dozen distant forms fell, dead or wounded, to our fire and to others. But there was plenty where they'd come from, grenades flying out ahead of them before they launched themselves into our forward trench.

"We can't keep this up." She growled, impatiently glaring at her weapon through her visor.

"We have to." I reminded her. "Or did you have a fallback plan?"

Another low growl. "You really are an ass, aren't you?"

"At least I'm decorative." I replied, hefting myself back up as my weapon cooled. "We need to-shit!"

Flinching back down, I grabbed her shoulder to keep her down a half-breath before the carnage round slammed into our little bunker. A second hit bare moments later, then a third. Something heavier, maybe a full-on missile, struck last of all, burrowing through the dirt before detonating. The heavy gun went abruptly silent, and I felt a stinging pain in my back even as my armor reported that the blasts had drained my barriers.

"Colonel!"

"I'm all right!" She coughed, staggering off of the step and into the trench. "The gunners aren't."

Turning, I felt air escape me in a seething sigh. The gun was little more than scrap metal, and the men who'd crewed it were both down. Shrapnel had torn them both apart, their blood pooling around their still forms.

"Back on the step, we need to-" A deep, furious bellow cut me off. My back tightened in entirely natural fear at the sound. "-to find that berserker and fucking drop it!"

Turning around, I hefted myself up enough that I could see over what was left of the dirt beam.

I found the Krogan more or less at once, because it was looming above the front line trench right in front of me. It was a biotic, probably had used a charge to get to where he was, and even as I watched he held out a stubby arm and let loose a gout of warp-fire into the trench.

Screams became audible over the gunfire and blasting artillery.

My gun snapped up on reflex, and I pinged a round off the barriers protecting his back. I don't think he even noticed it, nor the second. He _did_ notice when I switched tactics, freeing my left hand to trigger my tech-mine launcher. The overload exploded above his hump, lightning arcing over his massive form to rip and tear at his protection.

The furious howl of berserker rage sounded as he whirled around, snap-firing a shotgun round in my direction. Most beings would miss, but Okeer's projects weren't most beings. The spreading shot smacked across my head and shoulders, my barely recovering barriers abruptly shorting out once again.

Snarling, I triggered my next mine, an incinerate, then ducked down before the massive alien could fire again. I couldn't hear the detonation, and I could only hope that my overload and prior damage had lowered his barriers enough for the incendiary blast to hurt him.

I got my answer sooner than I wanted, just as the Colonel reached the fire-step. A shadow flickered past overhead, too fast to be properly tracked, and then the Krogan was hurling head-first past us in a biotic rush. But he'd misjudged the angle, not noticing the incline that the trench was set into. Instead of landing on his feet, ready to spin around and blast us from the high ground, his lower half smacked into the trench wall, drawing a startled roar of pain, and then he was dropping to the ground with a heavy crash.

Nara might not have fought as a regular soldier in a while, but her reaction times remained excellant. She joined me in shooting the downed Krogan as rapidly as possible, our shots hammering at armor blackened from my mine.

But even two dozen heavy rounds at point-blank range weren't much to a fucking berserker. Its armor held up to all but the last couple of shots, which only drew grunts of pain and dribbles of orange blood from its chest and side as it rolled onto a knee, gathering itself.

His shotgun was rising as well, but only in one hand. I was moving before I was conscious of having made the decision to advance, twisting my body to deliver a brutal kick with my right leg right where his fingers were holding the weapon. I howled in pain along with him as my ankle informed me how stupid of an idea that had been, but his gun went flying.

Then I was in agony. A lot of it. A fist slammed into my chest, hurling me a good meter through the air and sending me tumbling along the trench.

Reflexes drilled into me from too many sparring sessions with Illyan had me spinning up to one knee, knowing that to stay down was to die. My carbine had flown free from my hands, leaving me with just the pistol on my belt. I couldn't use mines, not this close, they'd cook my unshielded ass just as they would his. For her part, the Colonel threw her overheated weapon aside and grabbed one of the former machine gunner's pistols and promptly began firing again.

The Berserker had his back to her, but I could see him twitching and jerking with each shot. He was slowing, but not stopping, and biotic power began to wreathe his shot arms as he readied enough energy to pulverize me.

It missed when I did something that would have been extraordinarily stupid in any other circumstance. I feinted left, then ignored the throbbing agony in my ankle and darted towards him. Warpfire ripped at my right arm, but the main stream flew past without seriously hurting me. My hand-cannon unfolded in my right hand as I moved, that arm snapping the weapon up and into line with my massive target.

My first shot tore threw the battered and broken armor on his chest, a heavy spurt of blood following it. Shot two made the hole wider. Shot three blew apart one of his hands when he tried to raise it to hurl more fire at me. Then I was close enough to do what I wanted, darting right to dodge a clumsy, almost tired punch, and then my gun was shoved right under its protruding helmet, the barrel pointed up.

I hobbled back, the pain rushing in again after I pulled the trigger, the dead creature collapsing in front of me.

Shit, I was.. really light headed... oh right... air. I needed air. That was important. More pain joined the chorus as I inhaled, and I realized that the fucker had hit me on my _right._ Now I probably had fucking bruised ribs on both sides. If not broken ones.

Fucking son of a bitch. Athame's ass... I needed Voya here to take this fucker's crest off, maybe I'd mount it on my power armor.

"Reyja'krem?" The Colonel's voice was concerned, and I realized that she was crouching in front of me as I sat on the trench floor beside the corpse. "Reyja'krem!"

"I... sorry..." I was breathing too quickly, and it was seriously hurting. Focusing, I slowed the pace of inhalations... then nearly jumped when a odd _crack_ thundered above us. "What the... tell me that wasn't a tank... I don't want to fight a tank too."

An almost breathy laugh preceded her words. "It was, but it's ours. The 32nd is moving along our lines and hammering the attackers. Kaste released them from their patrol on the flank."

"Smart... smart." I repeated, shaking myself a bit. "They wouldn't have brought anti-armor with. Wouldn't have expected the need."

"Quite so." She exhaled heavily. "I've called for a medic for you, and I need to get to Colonel Lorus's command tank to finish coordinating the fight. But after this is resolved..." Her helmet turned to stare at the dead Krogan, and then back at me, her body posture shifting. "I will pay you a visit, if you do not mind."

"I... oh." I abruptly recognized her pose, tired and covered in armor as it was. What it meant she was offering. Somewhere was a voice telling me not to even think about it, trying to remind me about all of the hang-ups and problems I still had with casual things, but before I could even attempt to articulate any of that my mouth went off on its own accord. "My injuries would be a problem."

"Then I will be on top. And gentle." Nara replied, her tone tired but amused. "Mostly."

I stared at her for a few long moments, then I gasped out a laugh as the adrenaline rush faded, leaving me... almost giddy as my body realized it was still alive. I turned to stare at the dead Krogan, then back at her small form, and then I shrugged, still wheezing in pained laughter, and dipped my head in approval. "I'll expect you. Don't get killed."

Nara let out a quiet laugh of her own. "I won't. Today, at least."

It was probably a terrible idea... but after today?

After today we both deserved something good, and good seemed to be in terribly short supply.

* * *

_**Next up is Interlude X: Conspiracy Theory** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A very Cieran centric chapter thanks to his prior injuries, but everyone else will be returning in the next chapter. Which will cover the larger view of the attempted attack's aftermath, as well as a theory being developed by the team. After that we'll be moving onto the last Operation of the story: Breakthroughs, following it with Interlude XI: Death Knell, and then wrapping Vengeance up with an Epilogue arc.
> 
> A note on the romance poll below. After discussing things with the Blocked Writer, I believe I have firmly settled on who Cieran will be with long term (beginning at the end of the next story). To that end, the romance poll will be closed at the end of Vengeance. The one-shot will be written at some-point before or during Einherjar, depending upon who wins it (to avoid making it overly obvious who Cie will be with).
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	39. Interlude X: Conspiracy Theory

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

**Interlude X: Conspiracy Theory**

_Date: 11-12-2183_

_Location: Capital Front, Redcliffe, Feralda System, Northern Terminus_

* * *

Though the regiment's part in the battle was effectively over, the primary engagement continued for another ten days before no-man's land was again empty but for corpses and craters. The rest of the Silver Blades were only occupied for the first five, after which... after which there hadn't been enough of them who weren't wounded to make it worth keeping them on the line.

Trena and Callada had exhausted themselves biotically during the initial counter-attack, and Faras had gotten shot up badly enough that he'd been hauled back to triage. With our two primary biotics temporarily down, Kaste had pulled them off the line for a pair of days before directing Thul to work as a local counter-attacking force in sector thirty, at his own discretion.

They'd spent most of day four helping to create a make-shift firebase out of a series of shell craters only thirty meters from the enemy's front trench, with Mirala and her fellow Ardat-Yakshi acting as biotic artillery while Verse Ninety-Seven stood on the line with my friends. All of day five, and most of that night, was spent defending it against waved attacks trying to take out the new extension to our lines, and it had apparently gotten pretty ugly.

Washana had gotten hit in the leg trying to haul a wounded Idas back, forcing Illyan to drag them both back to safety. Voya had had her suit torn in three places by a Vorcha that had gotten into a trench with her, the alien jumping her from behind while she'd been cutting up another. She was being kept for medical observation while they pumped precious anti-biotics into her system. Trena had followed shortly thereafter, badly concussed from a nearby artillery blast. Callada had all but fallen into a coma from over-using her biotics for the second time in a few days, and they'd both been hauled back to the primary medical bunker.

With only Thul, Dietrich, and Illyan left, Major Kaste had pulled them back along with the Night Sisters. Mirala was down to just herself and one other, their third in a medically induced coma next to Shyeel, while their fourth had gotten her head taken off by a sniper. And we were still better off than the Verse. A trio of berserkers, with support, had hit their section of the line while a box barrage had come down around them to stop anyone else from helping.

I hadn't much liked them, their odd Brotherhood-inspired beliefs had rubbed me the wrong way, but I'd give them their due in passing. They'd died hard, and taken all three of the modified Krogan down with them.

"Final casualty count." I offered Nara a tablet as the two of us shuffled down a wide trench, heading towards the primary command bunker for the obligatory post-battle-what-the-fuck-went-wrong conference.

Her lower eyes flicked towards it, then away. "A summary, if you please, Reyja'krem."

"Nara." I admonished quietly. "I do recall demanding you call me by name."

Tanned lips twitched minutely. "A summary, if you please, Cie."

I enjoyed the tiny moment of mirth, then glanced down at the numbers and exhaled. "Five hundred and seventy two dead. Around fifteen hundred wounded, about a third of that badly enough that they aren't going to be returning to the lines anytime soon."

Nara's expression became a neutral mask as she did the math. "That leaves the regiment at forty percent strength, in comparison to how many soldiers we had prior to landing on this forsaken planet."

"Only if you assume the walking wounded can stand in the trenches." My voice lowered quietly. "Figure a little less. Maybe two thousand combat capable soldiers total, and the formations are still shot to pieces even with the consolidations. You might be better off scrapping the existing command structure entirely and reforming the unit."

"I'll consider it..." A soft, hissing sigh escaped her. "Sacred Pillars. Seven months ago there was nearly six thousand of us in five full formations. Now I don't even have the manpower to properly organize _two._ "

I didn't say anything in reply, mostly because I couldn't think of a way to put a positive spin on that. I was beat to hell, most of my companions were injured, and one of my friends was stuck in an induced coma to speed up her natural regeneration... but that wasn't anything like having to deal with three and a half thousand deaths inside of a single year.

But she was still a Colonel, and a Batarian on top of that. Me not saying anything didn't seem to bother her. If anything she probably hadn't even expected a response. It took her only a few steps to regather herself. "Did you have time to analyze the overall results?"

"Yeah." It hadn't been like I'd much else to do. Thul was more than capable of managing everyone, given that almost all of them were injured, and I wasn't about to insult him by interjecting myself. I'd checked in a couple of times, mostly to insult the punch-drunk Trena, but largely stayed with the 54th and tried to make myself useful. "We are now the proud owners of a salient, one kilometer deep by three kilometers wide."

"Losses across the army?"

A muscle twitched in my cheek. "High. At least two other units got hit at least as badly as us, and a lot of the others got ripped up in the main fight. No estimates on the enemy's yet, but rough guesses pout it about three times ours. Most of their dead came on the later days, they kept pushing when they probably should have pulled back."

"Then we are accomplishing our mission." Nara didn't sound like she particularly cared about that fact.

I made a noise to make it clear that I entirely agreed with her as we neared the command center's doorway. Four guards, two Turian, two Batarian, were already on alert, the bunker's door held open. One of the Turians, evidently the ranking soldier, stepped into our path and offered a routine challenge. After Nara responded appropriately, he let out a chirping grunt, and then was out of our way.

Passing inside, I let her take the lead as we promptly dropped down a short ladder, coming out into a small tunnel with another Batarian guard waiting inside an alcove. She let us pass without a challenge, more occupied with reading whatever it was she was reading on a tablet. Moving past her, it didn't take us more than a handful of seconds to reach another armored door that was open, revealing the controlled chaos of the primary command center.

"Ah, Cieran." Thul rumbled as we entered, the large man collapsed in a foldout chair near the entrance. Illyan loomed next to him, her massive frame leaning against the wall. "You're early."

I snorted as he and I exchanged politely neutral bows of our head, remaining silent until he and Nara had exchanged respectful nods of their own. "You're even earlier than we are."

"It was be early or keep listening to Trena bitch about how it feels like she's got the worst hangover of her life." Illyan rumbled through a long yawn. "Wish her brain would hurry up and heal, it's getting old boss."

That drew another snort, "You're working on the assumption that her brain is located in her head." Illyan gave me a tired grin that I returned, though neither reached our eyes. Shifting my attention to Thul, I returned to the reason we were here at all. "Any other senior officers present?"

"A few." Thul shrugged placidly, his upper eyes flicking around the room. "I would expect the others to be arriving soon enough, despite the scheduled start-time. Did you hear the war news?"

I shared a quick glance with Nara before shaking my head, "No. We know if it's true or not?"

"General Mascal has ceased the planetary blackout, though out-system traffic is still restricted. Ayle was able to confirm the information." My eyes blinked rapidly as my posture shifted to one of surprise. "The final pocket of resistance in Ostland fell yesterday evening."

Nara's four eyes narrowed. "Are we going to receive reinforcements? Possibly more shuttles assigned to bringing us supplies?"

"Unknown, Colonel." He shook his head minutely. "I believe General Kaste may have more information. If he does not I'm sure Cie will attempt to interrogate him after the reports are completed."

I shrugged, not bothering to deny an obvious truth. Shifting my way past him and the large woman, I leaned against the wall next to Illyan. "I suppose we'll find out then. How are Ayle and Amy?"

"Annoyed and very annoyed." The Asari snorted. "Also bored and suicidally bored. And planning on coming here."

"Figures they'd be... wait. What?" I blinked as my brain caught up with what I'd just heard. "Why the fuck are they coming here?"

"See the annoyed and bored comments boss." A massive hand rose towards my hair, my left arm snapping up reflexively to bat it away before she could try and ruffle it. "At least they'd also be bringing Glitch with. We could use that big pile of parts."

"You think it could actually traverse out here?" I countered.

"No idea." She admitted freely. "But it could at least stand around in the trenches."

"Glitch?" Nara asked, splitting her eyes between us as she interjected herself into the conversation.

"Our heavy combat mech." Thul supplied. While he engaged the Colonel in polite talk about Glitch and its capabilities, and just why we called it Glitch, I found myself trying not to slump against Illyan's side. The walk from the 54th's sector to the command bunker hadn't exactly been a short one, and my aching body was informing me that it seriously didn't appreciate the crap I was putting it through.

"You all right boss?" She kept her voice low, snaking an arm around my shoulders before I could try and stop her, hauling me against her side by main strength. "Athame's ass, you look as exhausted as us."

"Not exactly in the best shape right now." I admitted, trying not to show just how relieving it felt to slouch against her armor and let her take some of my weight. "Fucking berserker."

"Which hurt more, the fucking or the berserker?"

"I..." My mouth shut with a click before I glared up at her face. "How?"

"Saw the bruising when you nodded." Her tone was... odd. Lower and more serious than her normal teasing. "Who was it? The Colonel?"

I exhaled with a slight frown, then nodded minutely. Illyan chuckled deep in her chest, but it still sounded a little off. "Good on you, she's cute. How was it?"

"Different." I offered shortly. Though I hadn't stopped to seriously consider my injuries when Nara had first propositioned me, when we'd actually gotten to her personal dugout the deep-body ache had made it clear that even being gentle probably wouldn't be enough. So instead we'd used... alternative means to get each other off. At least, we had that night. Last night, or had it been this morning? Either way, things had progressed a bit. As I'd more or less expected, it had been about as painful as it was pleasurable, but she'd seemed to more than enjoy herself so I wasn't about to complain. "My ribs made it a bit difficult."

"Wow. Actually offering me some details. You sure you're still you boss?"

"Nope." I admitted with a smile I didn't feel. "I think I might be going insane, but at least the nightmares have stopped. Being able to sleep through a night remains a pleasantly novel experience."

From her quiet snort, and the way she held me a bit more tightly, she knew I wasn't joking, but her voice returned to its normal, concerned timbre. "Taking on a berserker by yourself is probably a bit insane boss."

"I wasn't alone." I muttered. "Nara was there."

"That makes it a little better." She admitted, "But I think the rumor that you took one down single-handed is a bit far gone at this point."

I tried not to slump even further. "Goddess. Tell me you're exaggerating."

There was a low, deep chuckle I could feel even through her armor and my own. "Sorry boss. We heard it this morning, it's more or less as you told us, just solo."

Well... shit. Nara wouldn't be thrilled but at least it wasn't being exaggerated beyond that single omission. At least, it wasn't at the current moment. I had a sudden image of people telling each other that I'd killed the massive alien in hand to hand or something equally asinine. "Shit..."

"Trying to correct it won't help boss. Probably just move it faster." The Asari advised. "Hey, that Colonel Lorus? What happened to his arm?"

"His command tank got hit by artillery." I glanced around her large frame to see the Turian limping in, his right arm bound to his rounded chest-plate. "One in a million strike while he was cruising along the trench-lines."

"Least he made it."

He'd been the only one who had walked away from that particular vehicle, so far as I knew. "Yeah."

She and I fell silent after that, simply lurking near the wall. Nara and Thul continued chatting, though their conversation had shifted to professional discourse about how the fighting had gone. While they did that, the other regimental commanders began to roll in. Seventeen Colonels were still alive, out of the original twenty-eight. Majors were in command of the other eleven units, though all of them had lost any nerves they might have once had at being thrust into command.

Illyan shifted a couple of times, glancing down at me as if she wanted to say something, but never did. Whatever it was, each time she stopped herself it was with a glance at the growing crowd, meaning it was likely something private.

Shit. She'd better not be worrying over Erana again, her sister was fine, living with Ghai in Sederis' mansion. I seriously didn't want to have yet another discussion on how the Eclipse was probably corrupting the little Maiden. Which they probably were, to be fair, but Ghai would make sure nothing got too out of hand.

"Meeting to order." Kaste's weathered voice was tired, but he still managed to make it ring with no small amount of authority. "Attention center."

Sighing, I shuffled forwards along with everyone else, wishing I'd thought to take more painkillers as my body continued to inform me that it would much rather have been in a bed somewhere. Preferably one that also included Nara or Ayle, naked and willing to do things to me. Our little knot of people quickly joined the general circle around the main holotable, General Kaste's aged form leaning upon it with his niece a half-step behind him.

I glanced around the ring, nodding to a few officers I recognized. The worst looking person there was Mirala, her normally elegant features looking like... well, like crap. Deep purple circles beneath her eyes were joined by a recently broken nose, and her lip had been split. Something had been pounding on her face, hard. She managed a tired nod back when our eyes met, but I didn't miss the way she was leaning heavily on Colonel Brathi'nar vas Xentha.

"All right. I'm sure you've all heard, but I will confirm it." Kaste began the briefing once he was sure he had our attention. "Ostland has fallen, and General Mascal is preparing to shuttle troops from the southern continent to this front."

If he was expecting a reaction, positive or otherwise, he didn't get one. Just stony silence as we waited for him to continue, which he did after the tiniest of pauses. "The initial operational plan is for ten regiments to join us here, with forty more landing on the northern side of the city. The remaining forces will be occupied in mop up operations, or will be reinforcing the units engaged in the mountains. As those missions are concluded, more forces will join us here and those forces landing north of the city as the General elects."

I felt myself frowning a little at the news, and cautiously rose my voice to interject. "What units are going to be showing up here?"

Kaste's mandibles flickered once, then waved a taloned hand at the holographic image. I frowned at the list that appeared, but it was a Batarian Major who spoke, his low voice all but a snarl. "Garrison and reserve units? Tell that prick not to bother, we don't need our men to watch them all die."

There was a murmur of muttered agreement, but Kaste simply shook his head. "If nothing else they can stand on the support lines and free up more proper soldiers for the front. Once the additional forces are in place, the primary advance on the city will begin from the new landing zone, aiming to take advantage of the fact that the garrison is primarily arranged around fortresses six through eight or otherwise deployed forwards and against us."

My frowned deepened and I spoke up again. "How do we know that?"

"General Mascal did not disclose his source of intelligence to me." I shared a glance with Thul, and saw many of the other officers exchanging significant glances of their own. "We will discuss things further as the campaign progresses."

From there the meeting got more detailed in regards to what was going to be happening in the future. Overall the plan was rather simple, and about what I could have predicted if I had actually trusted Mascal. Since I didn't, I was rather taken aback that the General had come up with a plan that actually seemed reasonable. I did my best to kept my expression neutral throughout, but from the way Illyan occasionally glanced at me in concern I wasn't doing the best job.

Uncaring about my mental suspicion, the briefing continued onwards. Once the new formation had landed north of the city, they would begin a rapid assault of fortress three. Ideally before the garrison could re-route forces in that direction. After the facility was seized and breached, the army would pour into the city proper and advance on Zaen's palace complex. That was a gross simplification, and Mascal had planned for that particular engagement to take weeks, if not months, of slow brutal fighting even with the, supposedly, depleted garrison.

For our part, we would be given several weeks to recuperate. Or at least, to recuperate as best we could given that we were still going to be on the line. The supply problems would, theoretically, be ending as well. They'd have to be if Mascal was sending us another fifty thousand soldiers. Regardless, once the second front was fully engaged, we would begin our own pressing attacks. If Zaen and his commander's cooperated, they'd have thinned the defenses to try and hold against the new advance, letting us break through here as well.

After which, we'd get to enjoy the fun and games of urban combat. At least, until we found Krom and Zaen, neither of whom had been discovered in Ostland, leaving just one city for them to try and hide in.

"Until we receive the appropriate signal, we will continue to stand on the operational defensive." Kaste paced slowly around the table, his rigid expression held carefully neutral. "What reserve units we have will be focused upon the new salient in our lines. I believe we can expect repeated attacks upon the position. Those units assigned to the flanking sectors are to begin expanding their own forward entrenchments as much as possible without drawing undue attacks upon themselves."

He flicked a claw towards the image, and his niece manipulated the controls to highlight the area in question. The ground in front of our lines shaded in broad stretches, a small time-lapse showing which sections needed to make the small advancements first. "All of our primary work will be done at night, and I expect the endeavors to begin at once."

There was a low rumble of agreement, and I saw several officers pointedly glancing at one another. They'd probably have another several meetings to work out the exact details after this one, or just coordinate with each other as they went through their own plans. Either way Kaste would let his subordinates get on with the details now that he'd set the overall goal. It was a very hands-off management style that I heavily approved of.

"Now, the analysis of the attack we just conducted." Mandibles flexed once in displeasure, the other Turians likewise shifting uncomfortably while Batarians, and me, quirked our heads and stances to show our own lack of eagerness.

But it was the only Quarian Colonel who spoke, his voice a smooth, rolling thing from the speakers on his helmet. "It failed. We suffered heavy casualties. Analysis completed."

There were a few snorts, and the General gave the man a wan Turian smile. "Thank you Brathi, but I'm afraid we need to discuss things further."

Nara exhaled from her place on Thul's left, and took a half-step forwards. "They were waiting for us to make the attack, and had way more reserves in place than we thought. Which means our next plan of attack needs to be adjusted accordingly."

Kaste flicked his attention to her and bowed his head slightly. "Yes, but that is for our next operational planning session. For now, the casualty reports are what concern me the most. Three units involved in secondary attacks suffered nearly fifty percent operational losses, though many of those are merely wounded and will return. The seven regiments contributing to the primary combat suffered between twenty and forty percent losses."

His niece adjusted the holographic display again, bringing up the list of units assigned to our little expeditionary force. Her voice was nearly as tired as her commanding officer's. "Of the one hundred thousand combat soldiers assigned at the beginning of this campaign, our current strength is merely sixty-five thousand. That is including those forces manning the GTS and anti-air weapons, as well as our artillery. What is worse, our medical facilities are close to overwhelmed."

Colonel Brathi'nar grunted loudly before speaking again. "Is Mascal finally going to let us evacuate them to Hintertown?"

"Yes." The General dipped his head. "Severe cases will go out on the supply shuttles once they have deposited their cargo."

I felt myself frown and shake my head, some of my long hair falling in front of my eyes. I brushed it aside as I spoke. "I don't like this."

Everyone glanced at me, Kaste twitching his mandibles. "We are finally receiving the support you have been demanding since we landed, Reyja'krem, and you don't like it?"

"No, I don't." Arms crossed my chest unconsciously, making me wince at the strain on my chest. Stupid fucking berserker. "Why now? The supply problems have to have been artificial, we know there's enough fucking shuttle traffic to give us more than we've been getting. How many people have we lost because our medical supplies are so bloody strained?"

A low rumble of annoyed agreement came from the assembled officers, and Mirala's low, dangerous voice rose from where she remained leaning against Brathi'nar. "Too many. And why are we only getting reinforcements now? Why not before the fucking attack went in, when we could have used ten fresh regiments. Or this intelligence he apparently has."

More sounds of agreement made the old General's mandibles quiver in irritation. This wasn't a topic that made him comfortable, but I didn't much care about his comfort. "General Mascal has not shared his personal thoughts with me."

"Stunning." Colonel Lorus rumbled. "Honestly I never understood why T'Ravt trusted that bareface."

"That is quite enough Colonel."

The commander of our only tank force grunted. "It's not even a start. I have my honor, same as you, but by the spirits. Why restrict our ability to communicate with the Lady Warlord? Why limit our supplies? Why waste time taking Ostland at all? His stated aim of improving morale was ruined by his own blackout."

More mandible twitching, and Kaste threw a withering glare at me and Mirala in turn, clearly unhappy with the pair of us for bringing the topic up. "You are not asking me any questions I have not already asked myself, Lorus. The current working theory is that he is simply attempting to prevent any word from reaching the Lady Warlord in regards to how slowly the campaign is progressing."

"And making sure we cannot seize the city without him." A Turian I didn't know shook her head. "I can think of no other reason he restricted our supplies, our aid, our numbers, yet did not simply cut us off entirely."

I grunted in agreement. "That would explain why he demanded we attack before Ostland fell, to make sure we couldn't take advantage of the garrison shifting when his army starts landing."

Brathi shook his helmet back and forth. "So he's just an overly vain asshole? Too simple."

The Turian woman, the blue markings of Xentha dull and scratched, shook her head. "Not everything has to be complicated. If you have a better theory I would be thrilled to hear it."

He apparently didn't, neither did anyone else. Kaste made a show of glancing around the room before exhaling. The old Turian closed his eyes, bowed his head, and seemed to come to some kind of personal decision. "I did not want to make our distrust of our own commanding officer public, and I would consider it a personal favor if all of you kept this private. Believe me when I say I share your concerns, especially in light of his recent declarations. This 'intelligence' upon the garrison's distribution in particular, but until we have the ability to contact the Lady Warlord, our options are limited."

"Until then," Vithi Kaste spoke, letting her uncle fall silent. "We must assume that our theory regarding him is incorrect, and that Mascal may have his own agenda. One that apparently involves our army being kept in the fight against Zaen, but not at full capacity. If speaking about any of this to your forces is something to be avoided, speaking of this to the new regimental commanders when they arrive is something that will not be tolerated."

"My cousin commands the..." One of the Batarians began to speak, only to shut up when Mirala took a single step forwards and glared at him. "... All I am saying is that..." He trailed off again when I took a halting step forward as well, lowering my head to the right and forwards in a direct challenge. "Understood."

The elder Kaste let out a quiet, chuffing sound. "Thank you both. If anyone notices anything unusual, hears any rumors, I would be most appreciative to be told about it. Now if we may return to the primary topics. First, I would like your full reports on the conflict within the next week. Second, I am brevet promoting two of you to Senior Colonels and giving you command of each flank to insure that none of the new arrivals can attempt to pull seniority if I am cut out of communication."

"Colonel Lorus," Major Kaste gave the tall, wounded male a half-bow. "You will command all forces on the right flank." Turning slightly, she bowed at a Batarian woman who'd remained silent so far. "Colonel ul Heshhan. You will take the left."

Neither of the Colonels seemed happy about their promotions, and expanded responsibilities. Which I took as a good sign, the last thing we needed was people who actually _wanted_ that kind of thing. Then again, most of the glory hounds were long dead or disabused at this point, so it wasn't that surprising.

"In regards to our mercenaries." She continued, glancing between me and Mirala. "You are both being removed from the regiments you are assigned to. Miss Mirala, respectfully... your outfit is no longer combat capable."

The Ardat-Yakshi's eyes tightened slightly, but she nodded. "You want me to work with Kean's unit."

"Yes." The General rumbled. "The pair of you will be acting as our only special forces detachment under my command, and will likely be committed to the center line once your people have recovered."

There was a quiet grunt, Mirala glancing at me. She didn't say anything, but I got the message that we'd be talking in the near future.

Apparently the very near future, because after a few more perfunctory remarks, Kaste closed the meeting and dismissed everyone. A little forcefully, actually, and I found myself frowning as I realized that the old man hadn't been moving overmuch during the discussion. Just slow pacing that he'd stopped almost at once, and right now he was leaning on the holo-table. It was as if looking at the image closely, but he was leaning too heavily for it to be genuine.

Shit.

I wanted to head over to talk with him more privately, but I caught Major Kaste's eyes over her uncle's shoulder. Her head twitched in the tiniest of motions towards the door. I frowned, watched as she repeated the gesture and narrowed her predator eyes. Forcing out a slow, pained breath, I bowed my head politely and turned away.

Getting out of the bunker wasn't terribly fun, my ankle joining in the chorus of throbbing pain. Illyan all but hauled me up as soon as I was close enough for her long arms to reach down and grab me. I thanked her quietly, which she waved away before helping me limp outside to where Nara and Thul were waiting patiently, with Mirala lurking nearby.

"It was pleasing to work with you, Reyja'krem." The Colonel spoke first, giving me an overly polite bow of her head, leaning it a bit to the left. Her lips twitched a little, "If you ever need assistance or a place to rest, my regiment would be happy to host both yourself and your companions."

"Thank, you Colonel." I replied equally politely, trying not to notice the bruise I'd left on the side of her neck. "I will remember the time with the 54th and its commanding officer fondly."

Her posture shifted a little, becoming something flirtatious for a brief moment, and then she was turning away and heading back towards her unit without looking back. I tried not to sag in relief, that hadn't been nearly as awkward as I'd been worried it would be. Then again who knew what it would be like the next time we met.

Assuming we ever _did_ meet again. At the rate this campaign was going we'd both be dead before the fucking year was out.

"Cie..." Thul's voice trailed off, all four of his eyes frowning as he glanced at me, then at the departing Colonel. "You didn't."

I felt my face heat slightly. "What?"

"Sacred Pillars." His head shook, his expression stuck somewhere between amusement and concern. "You barely know her, that isn't much like you."

My fingers twitched a little, and I tried not to shift into the posture for awkward embarrassment. "Can we talk about this later? Mirala is waiting."

He grunted quietly, and dipped his head before stepping to one side to give me room to move past him. For her part, Illyan remained silent, simply remaining beside me as my tired legs slowly propelled me to where the other Asari was leaning against the dirt wall of the trench behind her.

"Mirala." I greeted quietly.

"Kean." She replied. Eyes flicked up and down me, my armor not hiding my limp, or how tired my expression likely was. "You look like crap."

"So do you. I really like the punched in the face look you've got going." The Asari demon tried to glare at me, winced and reached up to touch her nose, then settled for shaking her head. "Walk with us?"

"Fine." The other mercenary fell in with us on my left, Thul and Illyan shifting behind us. She was silent for several breaths, speaking once it was clear that I wasn't going to take the lead. "I don't want to take orders from you. I like you, but... shit. You're not even a century old, no offense."

"None taken." My left shoulder rolled in a shrug. "I don't particularly enjoy being in command, even over my own friends. I don't want to add you and yours."

Another grunt. "Good. Sorry if I'm being short, it's just..."

"I said no offense taken." I repeated myself, my voice lowering. "Losing friends isn't ever a pleasant process."

"No." Mirala offered shortly. "It isn't. Especially for... it isn't."

Especially for an Ardat'Yakshi she meant. Friends were probably in extremely short supply for her, and she'd lost quite a few of them on this planet. "We can expand our bunker a bit, if you desire."

Eyes flicked towards me. She tried for wry, but it came out strained. "Not worried that I'll...?"

My right hand flicked up, fingers folding as if I was pointing a gun at her head. "You're not stupid, you know how we'd react."

There was a quiet snort, and an armored hand shoved my limb out of her face. "Yeah. We probably will, it's too... it's not pleasant to only have the two of us in there. Reminds us of a place we'd rather forget."

I frowned a little at nothing, rifling through my memories before shrugging. The monastery maybe, but it was her business. "We'll get another alcove or two dug out, or you can just use Shyeel and Voya's since they're stuck in medical for a while. As far as combat goes, you think you can act as support for us? Long-range biotics?"

She nodded slowly. "I can work with that. What about Krom?"

"Krom is..." I let out a hissing sigh of irritation and anger. "Farther down on my priority list than I would like him to be. Once we're closer we can discuss how the fuck we're going to manage the race to catch that asshole."

"Works for me." Mirala slowed to a stop at an intersection, "We'll meet you at your place later tonight, after we check on our sister."

I bowed my head in a polite Batarian fashion, making her snort again, and then she was gone as well, leaving me with my friends.

"Cie." Thul rumbled as soon as the Asari was out of earshot, his tone mild. "Are you sure your invitation is wise?"

"I like Mirala, and she isn't stupid." I pointed out as we started moving again. "Besides, we're going to be stuck working with them from here on. If she can't control herself enough to sleep in the same area as us I'd rather find out now and... deal with the problem in a relatively secure location."

The former priest let out a quiet sound of agreement. "A fair point. My apologies, I am not at my best right now."

"I don't think any of us are." I exhaled between my teeth, and tried not to think of the kind of fight we'd be involved in if Mirala and her surviving partner _did_ decide that one of us looked appetizing. Shaking myself, I slowed a bit so he could move up next to me, leaving Illyan to loom over us from behind. "Anyone's conditions changed since we spoke last?"

"No, they are all resting comfortably. Dietrich is standing watch." He paused tactfully. "Though you would not believe that if you were to simply listen to Trena."

"Of course she's bitching her ass off." I sighed. "Is she healthy enough for me to beat the crap out of her?"

"I won't stop you boss." Illyan chuckled.

I grunted, then remembered something else. "You wanted to talk about something?"

"Uh... I did?" She rumbled from behind us, her tone confused. "I don't remember saying anything like that boss."

"You didn't say anything, but you came rather close a few times back there." A shoulder rolled. "Figured it meant you had something on your mind."

"Nothing I can think of boss."

Frowning, I twisted my torso around and glanced up at her face. "Illyan?"

She gave me a tired, guileless smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Yeah boss?"

"You're a crap liar." I retorted.

"I am?"

A muscle in my cheek twitched as I turned away from her. Whatever it was she'd evidently decided that she didn't want to talk about it, and no amount of arguing would change her mid. She'd just keep deflecting, probably shift to heavy-handed flirtation until I got too annoyed with her to remember what I was asking about in the first place. It was her usual strategy of avoiding an uncomfortable topic, and one that still seemed to work even though I _knew_ what she was doing.

"Cie." Thul spoke as I simmered silently, our little group walking past one of the few fire-steps set into the reserve line. "You have spoken little beyond the basic details about what you were doing with the 54th."

"Because there wasn't much to say." I replied with a shrug. "I helped plan and manage our attack, got stuck on the line during the counter-attack, then worked with Nara to put everything back together."

His right eyes flicked at me, his mouth quirking. "And you worked with her in a more personal fashion?"

The muscle in my face twitched again as heat rose in my neck. Ribbing from Trena or Illyan I could take, and return fire in kind, but Thul was... he was _Thul_. "So?"

"It is rather unlike you, as I said." He replied placidly. "Your problems with such personal relations are known to me."

I grunted as if he'd just nudged me with an elbow. "We'd just survived an artillery hit on her command bunker, and then fought off a berserker. It wasn't a predetermined seduction or anything like that. We were just bloody thrilled to be alive."

"Ah." The words seemed to mollify him somewhat. "That is more understandable."

"Yeah." Illyan grunted, sounding relieved. I frowned and twisted around to glance at her again, but she simply gave me an innocent grin that reminded me of her sister. "Was she good?"

"Yes." I exhaled. "And that's all the details you're getting."

"Oh come on. Do I have to get you drunk first?"

"Probably." My right shoulder twitched as I turned away. "Back on mission."

"On mission." Thul nodded. "Having the Night Sisters, even as few as they are, will be quite helpful. They are powerful biotics."

I grunted. "I think we might loan them Trena and Callada, let them guide Mirala in our usual strategy."

"Four singularities would be better than two." He agreed. "But flare strikes used as biotic artillery were quite effective during the attack. Perhaps Illyan could also join them, then we could utilize three singularities to protect our flanks while the Sisters are more offensive."

"I want this big idiot," I rose my voice over said big idiot's annoyed sound of protest. "With us on the front so we have at least one biotic with. We'll leave it to Mirala and Trena to work out a power pattern as they want, so long as our flanks stay clear. Athame's ass, they'll probably come up with something better than we could."

"Probably." A low chuckle escaped him. "You do enjoy delegation, don't you?"

I snorted. "It means less work for me, so of course. Speaking of delegation, Illyan?"

The Asari let out a long groan. "You're about to give me work I don't want to do, aren't you boss?"

"Yup." I agreed, a small amount of vindictive cheer in my words. "When Mirala gets her ass to our place, check over her armor and guns."

"And... do what with it boss? We don't exactly have upgrade parts laying around boss."

"I know." I exhaled and tried not to think of the repairs my own equipment still needed. "See what you can scrounge up all the same."

"I get it." She sighed. "I'll see what I can do boss."

"Thanks." Thinking about the two Ardat-Yakshi about to room with us reminded me that we were about to have more company, and I let out an annoyed chuff of breath. "And we need to find more room for Ayle and Amy when they get here."

"We could expand our bunk boss, but I don't know if they'd be up for a foursome."

Thul made a soft noise, his lips pressed together as he held back laughter. For my part, I counted to twenty in three different languages, and then spelled out the words 'justifiable homicide' in Khellish and Thessian. And then I reminded myself that Erana would be heartbroken if her sister didn't come home.

Erana... "Nara was kind of cute, and quite personable." I mused aloud. "Maybe I'll have to invite her to Illium on her next leave, introduce her to Erana."

There was a sharp intake of breath. "Cie, don't you-"

"She was quite gentle, too." I continued, my lips twitching as a low growl began to rumble behind me. "There could be far worse first times for her."

A massive hand dropped onto my shoulder, her voice little more than a growl. "Ass. Putting that image in my... you're an ass."

"Could be worse." I reminded her. "I could have asked you to imagine Erana making out with Trena. No, wait. I've used that one before. Erana making out with _Voya._ "

Illyan made a sound like she was about to vomit.

On my left, Thul let out a long, heavy sigh before murmuring a passage from the Pillar of Heart. One about remaining strong and dedicated even in the most trying of times, and hearing his long-suffering tones made me grin slightly.

Of course, that grin faded when a hand grabbed my hair and hauled back on it, making me yelp and skid to a stop. A shadow loomed over me as Illyan leaned down, her lips almost pressing against my ear as she growled. "You know know something _boss?_ You're too injured to fight me, and I can't risk hitting you even though you more than deserve it for that bloody mental image. But I wonder... how many knots I can tie this fur into?"

"Thul!" I shouted, abruptly aware that he'd just kept on walking. And that several soldiers in nearby alcoves were poking their heads out and watching us with every sign of amusement. "Get your ass back here and help! Thul!"

The former priest vanished around the corner, leaving me to my fate.

* * *

**A Scaled Perspective**

_Two Weeks Later_

Lounging in my hollowed out cave of a bed, I watched as the ape ducked out of our bunker, headed out to harangue the fucking supply officers some more. Couldn't really blame him, even though we were actually getting crap now, that didn't mean we were getting the _right_ crap, and we were all sick of tracking down the orders that had ended up elsewhere.

"He looks ridiculous." Ayle ul Massa exhaled from where she sat in the center of the room, her living and metal arms both resting on the foldout table we'd liberated from one of the newly arrived regiments. A tablet filled with reports was in front of her, the woman trying to correlate the reality of our expeditionary force against the crap that Mascal had been publishing back in Hintertown. "With his fur all cut up. No one will take him seriously."

She and that reporter, Amy Chang, had arrived a few days before. Both of them had looked stunned at how battered we looked, how bad _everyone_ looked. We'd been more than a little shocked as well, it had been fucking weird to see people who looked... well, healthy. It wasn't until I'd seen Chang that I'd realized just how gaunt both the ape and Deet were becoming. Shit, even Thul didn't quite look so muscled and huge against Ayle as I remembered, and only in comparing them in person did I realize that all four of his eyes were sunken.

The arriving reinforcements had likewise been eye-opening for the rest of the army. The new arrivals hadn't been received terribly well by the veterans, to my complete and total lack of fucking surprise. That the new Colonels had all universally seemed to be entitled assholes hadn't helped matters either, and more than one of the veteran regimental commanders had proposed just sending all of the idiots in a mass-attack to rid us of them.

Kaste hadn't, but he'd seemed tempted.

"That's why he's wearing the fucking helmet." I pointed out through a long yawn, not bothering to get up. "And you can blame Illyan for that."

"He was being an ass." The bunker's only other occupant growled from where she was laying in the ape's bed. "More so than usual."

"Still." The Batarian shook her head minutely. "It is his most attractive attribute. _Was_ his most attractive attribute."

"You sound like Voya." Illyan muttered, rolling onto her back and exhaling. "It's not like he cut it all off."

"It's still all ragged now." I pointed out with a snort. "And uneven. And weird looking. Not that I really care, if anything it makes it easier to make fun of him."

Which was something I thought he needed. Well, that all of us needed. Making fun of each other and teasing the crap out of everyone was one of the few things keeping us sane in this goddess-forsaken mess. If the shit we were saying got a bit more vicious than normal... well, that was to be expected. Though honestly the ape probably hadn't deserved to get his fur jerked into knots so tight he'd had to cut most of them out. At least, not for what he'd said at that particular moment.

Ayle apparently agreed. "It was still a gross overreaction on her part, he's said far worse."

"Yeah." I shrugged a shoulder. "She's just letting out her jealousy in a way she's hoping he won't notice."

"Jealousy?" She repeated, turning her entire chest so that she could look at Illyan without turning her head. "Sacred Pillars, you can't be serious."

"She isn't." The maiden gave me a glare, but I'd been glared at by professionals like Sederis and Cieran. "Just because he fucked that Colonel doesn't mean I'm-"

"He _what_?" Ayle cut in, all of her eyes going wide enough to show the normally hidden whites.

"He slept with Colonel Nal... Nar... something." I shrugged. "Couple of weeks back, after that huge fight. They'd survived some tough shit and she wanted we're-still-fucking-alive sex, he said yes."

Which annoyed the crap out of me. Not that he'd done it, but because I hadn't been there to interrogate him about it or even see the girl he'd been with. Athame's ass I'd only been trying to get him to have casual, no strings attached sex with _someone_ since I'd know him, and of course he fucking picked the middle of a battle to finally do it.

Such an inconsiderate ass.

"That is..." She seemed to fumble around for words, shake herself a bit, and then nodded slowly. "Surprising but understandable. I assume it was after his confrontation with the berserker?"

" _Their_ confrontation with it." I corrected her. "She was with too, but the fucking rumors keep leaving her out."

"Ah." The Reyja'krem nodded as though that made more sense, than returned her attention to Illyan. "You are sure she is jealous, T'Laria? She hardly was when I slept with Cieran. Either time."

"I'm not-"

"She was." My words came out a bit muffled as I yawned again. "I'm almost four centuries old, I know shit like that when I see it."

"I'm not jealous!"

I rolled onto my side, propping myself up on an elbow so I could glare at her properly. "Illyan T'Donna. Stop denying this crap right fucking now."

She flinched at my use of her full name, blue lips pressing together.

"You're jealous," I continued in the same tones I remember my parents using whenever I did something stupid. So all the fucking time really. "Because he slept with someone who wasn't you. Because you _wanted_ to share the pain of losing that kid, Jarrick, with him. Because he _can't_ fucking meld with you. Because he won't rip your clothes off no matter how much you flirt with him."

"I don't..." Her voice was low and quiet, and reminded me of just how _young_ she actually was. An Athame-blessed giant though she might be, she was only a hundred and fifty years old, and this bloody campaign couldn't have been helping her work through her emotions. "Shit. I just thought it would be Voya, or you, or... shit. Me I guess. Someone who actually knew him, not some lowborn Batarian officer he'd known for all of a few days."

Ayle snorted. "You're acting like he's about to elope with her. If I know Cieran, and I believe that I do, he'll be doing everything he can to not think about what he did with her."

"I know that!" Illyan all but spat, anger making bits of light appear around her arms. "I _know_ all that, I just... goddess, why am I all screwed up about this?"

She was all screwed up because she was a bloody maiden who'd lost a friend, and she'd reacted to it the same way she'd reacted after we'd heard about Rane'li. She'd attached herself viciously to the nearest person she cared about, though back then it had been Erana she'd been all but smothering with sisterly affection.

And she was all screwed up because she was fighting in these fucking holes in the ground, knowing she could literally die at any fucking moment if an artillery strike hit us.

"It's a bitch to fight the instincts." I said after a few moments. "You lost a friend, and you're clinging to the ones you've got. The fish-hind brain we've got says to meld with them, to share the pain and help everyone get over it. But the ape physically can't, and that little bitch would sooner slit your throat then let you into your head. So you're trying to make it clear that you want the next best thing, and he's not biting."

"Literally." Ayle murmured, a nostalgic expression making her lips quirk.

"Not fucking helping." I growled at her, trying not to think about the ape in _that_ fashion. I'd heard him and Shaaryak enough times, and by the goddess I didn't need to picture him with other Batarian women.

She rolled a shoulder, a gesture she must have picked up from our people much as Cie had. "Nothing we can do here _will_ help her, T'Laria. All of you are on the verge of complete break-downs, I realized that within a few hours of landing here. You are becoming mothering and, quite frankly, smothering. The Kithans never leave each others sides and seem to rarely speak with anyone else. Thul spends all of his time preaching to any soldiers who will listen to his message."

"And the ape buries himself in bloody work or spends all his time with the little Quarian bitch or this big idiot." A heavy exhale forced its way out of my chest, and I found myself flopping onto my back again. _Knowing_ that crap didn't help me do shit about it. Especially since Shyeel was still fucking unconscious, and she'd largely been the one to help me work through shit and find ways to try and buck up morale a bit.

And the ape... he hid it well, but I'd seen his hands shaking violently for no apparent reason at random times. Illyan and Voya would close ranks around him if they noticed, suddenly needing to talk with him for several minutes in private. And the fact that one or the other of them was always in his bed to sleep next to him, though I honestly had no idea if it was for his sake or theirs. Probably both.

"Part of that is good." We both glanced over at Illyan, her expression too old for her face, her internal confusion pushed aside for a brief moment. "The part about him and Voya. He's keeping her temper under control, or she'd have snapped already."

I grunted, not terribly surprised. "Psychopathic little bitch. I have no idea why the two of you like her."

"They went through quite a bit on Omega, together." Ayle leaned back slightly, so that she could split her gaze between the two of us. "And the last thing we need is for her to fall apart."

Illyan pursed her lips, staring at the dirt ceiling above the bed she was in. "Yeah. I... Athame. I guess we're all going to need some quality time with Ghai when we get home."

"Yeah." I agreed quietly. "But she'll be there to put our idiotic heads back together."

"Idiotic?" The Batarian woman said, both sets of eyes flicking in my direction.

"We're sitting in an fucking cave, in the middle of a siege line, trying to fight our way into a city filled with fucking enemies to try and capture an assassin. Athame's ass, what about that doesn't sound like something only a fucking idiot would do?"

There were a pair of snorts, and Ayle dipped her head to show agreement. "Perhaps."

Covering a yawn, I was about to continue on that course, only for my omni-tool to flare to life around my wrist. Flicking my eyes down, I glared at the stupid thing before twitching a finger to accept the call. "Ape, we were just bitching about you."

" _Shocking._ " His dry voice echoed slightly from the tiny speakers, " _Tell Illyan to wake her ass up, I need her at the supply depot. They finally brought the power armor out. I need her help to go over the suits before Dietrich and I walk them over."_

Said maiden groaned, but slowly rolled off the bed and onto her feet. "On my way boss."

 _"Thanks._ " He grunted before cutting the line.

While she prepared to leave, Ayle returned her attention to the reports she'd been reading before we'd gotten talking. Trying not to be annoyed at the lack of a distraction, and failing, I rolled over to face the wall and pulled the make-shift blankets over myself. Nearly all of us could fall asleep within a few breaths at this point, even the Ape, but a few of ul Massa's words continued to bob around in my mental sea.

Mothering and smothering... all of us on the verge of break downs...and Illyan.

Fucking crap. She was reacting to the stress of this shit by trying to fall for the ape, for Cieran, without really thinking crap through. Thinking entirely with her azure and her emotions instead of with her brain. I'd have to find a way to talk to her, otherwise it would turn into him and Shaaryak all over again. Short and passionate and ending in all kinds of pain, and neither one of them deserved that.

Letting out a slow breath, I let those plans drift away, casting about for more pleasant memories. My mental ship returned home, to Illium, to the mansion where the rest of my family lived. I remembered Ethy's tiny little face, Ghai's proud smile as she held our daughter, the burning warmth in my chest at the sight of them both. And then... and then I remembered how it had felt to leave them.

Inhaling sharply, I shoved the thoughts back and away, letting my mind slow. Sleep rose almost at once, the blissful numbness carrying me down into the deeps where my own fuck-ups couldn't hurt me anymore.

* * *

_**Next up is Operation: Breakthroughs** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not overly thrilled with this chapter, but it gets everything out there. Work was a pain in the ass all week, causing this chapter to get written in chunks and not quite as I planned. I can only hope it works all right. In regards to the content, we're moving rapidly towards the end-game, with the final operation on Redcliffe coming up next, followed by a massive interlude, and then wrapping this story up with a nice long epilogue.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	40. Operation: Breakthroughs I

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

**Operation: Breakthroughs I**

_Date: 01-02-2184_

_Location: Capital Front, Redcliffe, Feralda System, Northern Terminus_

* * *

"All right." I breathed, leaning over the tiny holo-table that we'd 'borrowed' from one of the garrison regiments that had shown up the month before. "I've got confirmation from Kaste. The attack kicks off one hour after midnight, and we have our marching orders."

Around me, everyone else nodded, grunted, or otherwise indicated their assent. We were all gaunt, all looking as if the tides had been hammering us continuously. Which they more or less had. While our supplies had increased, they hadn't done so proportionally to the number of additional troops we'd received. It wasn't a starvation level problem, not yet anyways, but rationing was very much in place and had been for a while.

"According to Mascal's... intelligence," My lips twisted on the word, "The garrison in front of us has largely been depleted to counter his own progress in the northern suburbs."

Thul grunted quietly, rumbling from his position on my left. His eyes were sunken, and he moved even more stiffly than usual. He'd been bounced around badly by a biotic during an enemy raid two weeks ago, and wasn't fully recovered. "Do we trust his information?"

"Of course not." I scoffed. "Serious questions only please."

Mirala chuckled from where she was sitting opposite me, and Thul gave me a small grin and a tiny, apologetic tilt of his head. "Merely making sure that Kaste remains stable."

"He does." Ayle murmured from where she was sitting on my right, the metal fingers of her right arm tapping slowly on the table. "Which is why the attack is going in early."

Trena exhaled smoke, her battered and cracked pipe lowering from lips nearly as split as the wood. The water rationing wasn't being kind to her or the any of the other Asari, and her own legion of bruises and minor wounds was beginning to pile up. Then again that was true for all of us at this point. "How early?"

"Mascal thinks we're attacking four days from now." I supplied. "And in a wave-style assault across the full line, but we're actually executing a phased attritional campaign on a sector by sector basis. If he, or anyone on his staff, is still giving Zaen information, hopefully it will fuck with them."

"And if he isn't," Our actual Commander resumed, "It will hardly affect anything as Kaste was already well in the process of preparing for this attack. Mascal's orders were entirely coincidental so far as he is concerned."

Or as far as his niece was. I'd become increasingly convinced that the old Turian wasn't doing terribly well health wise, and that Major Kaste was being forced to act on her uncle's behalf more often than not. When no one else spoke up, I prodded a button on the table and resumed the briefing. "This attack isn't going to be fun, or fast. The goal is to grapple with those assholes, and hold them until the tide rises above their heads. If we can kill what they have in out in the open with us we should be able to roll over Fortress Seven."

In front of me, the map updated itself, flickering to show the two opposing sets of trench lines. Another update brought the artificially determined 'sector's into place, blanketing the battlefield into columns. "We are going to be here, in sector sixty, directly between two units. The 121st is going to be rotated into place on our left, and the 54th is going to be on our right. They're both sailing out with the initial strike."

Thul leaned onto the table with his hands, his lower eyes focused on the image as red lines began to appear. "Short-ranged objectives... we'll be ceasing the advance at the enemy's reserve lines?"

"Ideal situation would be if we can take their mortars for ourselves." Reaching out, I tapped the vague area where we thought they were. "But once we've reached that point both units will start working on the enemy's trenches, turning them around. We're on tunnel-closing duty, as per the last assault. Once those are dealt with we can join the general defense."

The Ardat-Yakshi grunted, rising to frown at the total scope of the map. "Three breaches into the enemy's lines. Time?"

"We're expected to have reached the target lines by hour eight at the latest." Shifting my hand back to the controls, I pressed another button. Three more swaths of the battlefield dutifully shifted color, showing where advances would be occurring. At the same time the garrison units shifted location. "This is day one by mid-afternoon, with more attacks stepping off as ours hit our targets and free our artillery up to support the others. One of the fresh garrison units will be rotating up to take over holding duty for us, with more penetrations occurring there, there, and there."

From there, the plan became repeating process. Careful, shallow advances would breach narrow sections of the enemy lines. After which another push would occur elsewhere, while the new arrivals moved up to take the veteran's place and give them a breather before headquarters resolved where they were needed next.

"By day five, we should have cleared the primary defensive line." I exhaled. "And the militia should have tried to consolidate in their reserve position. We _think_ that that is here, five kilometers back."

Trena's eyes narrowed. "Based on?"

"The terrain." I waved a hand at the image. "It's the best remaining position to dig in on between here and the fortress. But just to be sure, The garrison regiments will be following and keeping contact with them. Once we confirm they're trying to form a new line, the veteran units rotate back in and repeat the same attack style, but on a regimental level. First rate units will attack by company, second rate units by formation. Local artillery support only."

"And we're going to be where boss?" Illyan asked.

"Wherever Kaste thinks we'll be needed." My left shoulder rolled in a tiny shrug. "If possible they want to send us after headquarters detachments or any Krogan that are still around as commanders."

"Finally somethin' we're actually good at." Callada drawled from where she was leaning against Illyan as if the larger Asari was a convenient wall or column. "I'm sick of this stand over there and shoot that way, then go ta tha next trench and do the same shit."

"Not the only one." Her support rumbled. "What happens after that boss? The fortress?"

"Yeah." I exhaled. "We're going to be held in reserve until a breach is forced in the interior, then we go in and find the gun bays. Once the big guns are down we're officially free to head into the city to find Krom."

Mirala grunted to draw my attention back to her, and the other Ardat-Yakshi lurking silently behind her. "What about us?"

"If you're both still alive, we'll include you in the cuts of the bounty." My right hand rose before she could say anything further, "Your wounded member included of course."

The demon pressed her lips together as she thought about it. "Your word on it?"

"Of course." I sighed. Constant battle had ramped up the poor girl's paranoia to the extreme, and she was becoming extremely twitchy. "We can talk after this is done."

Her eyes narrowed, but she twitched her chin into a tiny nod.

"Then can we focus on the initial assault?" Thul kept his voice calm, devoting one set of eyes each to Mirala and I. "Since it will be beginning tonight."

Grunting, I manipulated the table to zoom into our precise area of operation. Details began flying as we analyzed the terrain, for what good it would do. It was entirely possible that more artillery would transform it between the morning and the step-off time tonight, but it gave us a decent idea of where we'd be moving through. Dietrich shouldered his way closer so that I could show him the path the pair of us would likely have to take. Our power armor wasn't really designed for climbing, it wasn't something I'd ever really considered way back when Rane and I had put the blueprints together, and we'd have to avoid the larger craters. Glitch would have to follow in our wake as best it could. If the machine couldn't keep up, we'd send it back to stand sentry in reserve.

Once he and I had that planned out, the topic shifted to what cover we'd have. A light mortar team from the 54th would give us a three layered barrage to suppress any potential heavy weapons that would bother either Dietrich or I. After that, the pair of us would be responsible for keeping the enemy at bay while everyone else got to the trenches. We'd jump in with them only once we'd done everything we could from that angle.

"After we've cleared the front trench," I traced the lines our own scouts and raiders had identified. "We split up. Deet, you get to take this gun nest out. I'm taking this one over here. Thul's taking his team down this line. Clear out any enemies you find and seal any trenches. Mirala you get the other side. Once we all have cleared our section of the support trenches, we push on as a general unit to the reserve line. We won't have any artillery support after the initial suppression, so Deet? Save the grenades in your launchers for when we really need them."

After that we'd call Major Kaste and get a platoon from the 121st to take over our section. If the people on either flank needed help we'd give it before pulling back to the enemy's front trenches to stand in reserve for a couple of hours. If the battle was going well, we'd get to return to our own lines by noon to rest and recuperate. We'd get maybe twelve hours of that before rolling back out to go tunnel hunting if it proved necessary. Otherwise we could expect defensive rotations as needed.

"And," Thul interjected once Ayle had finished outlining the last part, his voice even more somber than usual. "What are the odds that the battle will go well?"

Ayle and I exchanged a glance, her upper eyes meeting mine before I sighed and shook my head. "The _plan_ is that we'll get plenty of time in reserve or off the line as the units rotate."

Trena grimaced. "We're going to be fighting all the way to the fucking city, aren't we?"

"Probably." I murmured quietly. "It would definitely be in the spirit of everything else that's happened here. We'll talk to Kaste, but I don't think much of anyone is going to be getting time off, regardless of what the plans are. Once we breach the trenches we're going to have to extend the line of battle to avoid being flanked, and that's going to eat into what few reserves there are."

"Even then the line is going to be thin." Our Commander added, her low voice soft. "The original plan was to simply seize the enemy's current lines, then bleed them when they attempted to counter-attack. Once they stopped making the attempt, we'd hold for several days to recover and then repeat the process with a slow, cautious advance... but that was too hesitant for Mascal. He ordered the shift to make it a full assault on the fortress."

"And when Kaste tried to talk him out of it he was informed he could perform as ordered or stand relieved." The fingers on my left hand twitched as the echos of anger surged.

Callada scoffed. "Fuckin' let 'im try. We'd kill anyone he sent."

"Probably." I shrugged a shoulder, flexing my hands a bit to make sure the twitches didn't turn into something worse. "But he doesn't have to relieve Kaste to make us attack. All he'd have to do is stop supplying us."

That drew winces and growls of anger.

"The General is aware that his plan is not ideal, not for this distance we must travel." Ayle spoke into the mutters that broke out after that. "But we are effectively out of options. We lack the armor for a traditional breakthrough or flanking maneuver, and our artillery is insufficient for an across-the-lines assault. Attacking in prongs, as we are, should hopefully allow at least one or two of the heavy attacks to succeed by focusing what firepower we have into narrow areas."

"Each breach in their lines also forces them to commit reserves to take them out, making the follow-up attacks more likely to succeed." I added. "We were fairly confident in the initial attack. It's what comes after that that's the problem. Kaste is leaving it at the regimental level because we just don't have the time to plan for anything more detailed than that."

The discussion shifted to just our plans would be, assuming that everything fell apart. But since we really had no idea how it was going to shit yet, it basically just amounted to 'we'll have to roll with whatever happens'. The details, such as they were, being resolved, we broke apart after that. Ayle busied herself in what reports were available, while the rest of the unit separated to prepare themselves in their own ways. I would have headed out to inspect my armor, but I had a meeting with a demon first.

She fell in beside me as everyone scattered, the pair of us pulling our helmets on as we stepped out of the dugout and into the trenches. The dull, distant rumble of artillery grew slightly in pitch, and I cocked my head to listen as we got moving.

Nothing nearby, maybe a few kilometers away... the firing was slow, just harassing fire. Not worth worrying over.

We made it about a dozen paces before the woman next to me let out a low, snarling curse. "Athame's ass but I'm sick of this."

I grunted quietly. "We all are."

"I know, it's just..." Mirala let out an unintelligible, furious gargling sound. "I'm thirsty. I'm staving. I'm exhausted. And worst of all I'm fucking hungry."

"You already said you were starving. If your rations aren't-"

She interrupted me, cutting a hand in the air in front of her. "I'm _Hungry._ Not for food."

The capital letter practically thudded into place, and I was glad that my helmet hid my flinch. "Oh."

"Oh." She repeated, her tone adding more than a few drips of sarcasm.

We were silent for several paces, and then I asked quietly. "It's the constant fighting, the pressure, the fatigue... It's wearing at your control, isn't it?"

"Yes." Armored fingers closed, then opened. "When... when we're found, it's almost always after we've tried to be _with_ someone. Killed someone. They send us to monasteries, and one of the first things they teach is how to control the urges that come because of that. Meditation. Focus."

My lips pursed as the unexpected admission. "Neither of which can be easy with the constant gunfire and barrages."

"No..." The word was a mutter, barely audible over the background noise. "No it isn't. Normally it's a simple matter to press it into the background, it only becomes difficult if we have to exhaust ourselves physically or biotically."

"Which you've done at least three times in the past two weeks alone." I exhaled. "Dammit. Please tell me you aren't about to turn into a psychopath and try and eat us in our sleep."

"No, of course not. It's just..." Another frustrated noise, this one almost girlish. "No. Not yet."

I could have done without her adding the last few words. "What can we do to help?"

She was silent for several steps. "Save some prisoners for us? _Not_ Vorcha."

Fingers on both of my hand twitched once. "You want me to feed you people?"

"Want? No." Mirala scoffed. "I want to get off this fucking planet. I want to forget this stupid bounty. I want to go _home_ and meditate. I don't _want_ to lose control. I _hate_ the urge. I _hate_ how it makes me look at..."

"Me?" I guessed quietly.

"You." She all but growled. "You barely have four years worth of life, but everything I've heard makes it sound _rich_ with experience. And T'Laria. The life she's lived, the things she's seen. It would be..."

"Enough with the creepy demonic shit." My own voice lowered in warning, a hand sliding to my holstered hand-cannon.

"I'm sorry." Her helmet turned away, and her feet slowed to a stop. The Ardat Yakshi planted both armored hands onto the trench wall, and bowed her head. Armor shifted as she breathed deeply, evidently employing one of her calming techniques.

Athame's fucking ass. This was just what I needed right now, a pair of demons, one of whom I rather liked personally, about to lose control of themselves. Dammit. I should have fucking seen this coming, should have realized that their control over themselves couldn't have been something easy or simple. If it had been, then her kind wouldn't have been considered as dangerous animals by the Republics.

Shit. I was supposed to be the intelligent one, who could connect the ripples and trace them back to their origin. And I'd been entirely focused on keeping her content in regards to coordinating with us, making sure that she didn't feel like I or Ayle was trying to order her around.

"Fucking shit." I hissed to myself. I didn't want to let Mirala eat a prisoner, didn't want to let her rip their mind apart. But I didn't want her to end up killing someone on our side either. And it wasn't as if she could leave. There was only the desert behind us, and the supply shuttles didn't even land anymore. Not after a group of deserters had forced their way onto one, and one of the frigates still lurking over the horizon had shot it down when it had run for open space above us. These days they just tossed their cargo out from a hover on Mascal's orders.

He hadn't explicitly stated that there wasn't going to be any retreating for us, but there wasn't any need for him to do so. We'd gotten the message.

"I won't capture a prisoner for you to consume." I stared at the muddy trench stretching out ahead of us, wishing this shit was done with it. I was sick of drowning on this goddess-forsaken planet. "But remember what I told you back when we first talked about this kind of thing."

The figure beside me shifted. "That you didn't care that I cleaned up the loose end, when we investigated Mascal. That you didn't care what we did so long as none of us went after any of yours."

"Still don't." I offered quietly. "I won't _help_ you do it, but I won't interfere either."

"I told you I don't _want_ to-"

"You're a half-breath away from attacking me or Trena in our fucking sleep." I countered, turning to stare at her through my helmet's visor. "And you're twitching each time an artillery strike comes down."

Another distant rumble proved my point, but even with her own armor in the way I could tell that she was glaring at me.

"If you lose control," My voice remained level, and I pointedly shifted my right hand to make it clear it was still on the grip of my weapon. "I will have to shoot you. I'd try to make it non-lethal, but if you're sufficiently out of it I might not have a choice."

She was silent for several breaths before she asked. "Why?"

I blinked. "Why what?"

"Why make it non-lethal? Athame's ass we're _competitors_ , regardless of what that old Turian says." Armor shifted as she crossed her arms. "Sure we get along, but that doesn't make us friends."

"No, but we're both here." Letting go of my weapon, I spread my arms apart to encompass the trench, the falling artillery, the... all of it. "We're going through the same shit. We're stuck here, along with everyone else. As far as I'm concerned that means something."

Her visor stayed on mine for a few long breaths, and then she shook her head slightly. "That priest is getting to you, isn't he."

One of my shoulders twitched in a tiny, rolling shrug. "The point stands."

"It..." She fell silent, then shook her head and seemed to sigh. "Athame's ass. This is what T'Donna means when she's insists you're a good person, doesn't she?"

I felt my lips press together. "Illyan has too high of an opinion of me."

"I noticed." Mirala shook her head, almost bemusedly. Another flinch half-ruined the gesture, another artillery round coming down a bit closer. "Kean... you're telling an addict to go wild and indulge."

"No," I countered, "I'm telling you take take a controlled hit to keep you sane before we end up trying to kill each other."

She snorted. "There's no such thing as a controlled hit. Not for us."

"Sure there is. Take _one_ person each, enough to assuage your... hunger, and that's it."

"Or what, you'll shoot me?"

"In the foot. Probably both of them." My lips twitched a little, though she couldn't see it. "And then I'll have Thul lecture you about his faith while you're strapped to one of the medical cots."

There was a sputtering sound, and I could imagine her face twisting in displeasure as she shook her head. "Isn't that outlawed by some rule of war?"

"Just think of all the inane, unrelated questions he could ask you. And how he'd go on and on and never once explain himself."

An armored fist smacked into my shoulder. "Ass. Do you have any idea how hard it was to shut him up when we started rooming with you idiots?"

"Not nearly as difficult a time as I had it when we got started as a unit." I pointed out, the humor slowly fading as I moved back to the primary problem. "Tell me honestly. Can you control your urges long enough to see this campaign out? Or do we need to cover you while you sate it?"

Silence fell, broken only by the distant sounds of harassing gunfire and shells, her head bowing as she visibly thought it over. It took her several minutes before she seemed to sigh. "I'll have to talk with Catha. If we... need to take someone, I'll let you know before the step-off time."

"Thank you" I offered quietly. It didn't quite seem like the right thing to say, but then again I had no bloody idea what the right thing to say in this situation even was. "I need to go check over my armor. Tell Ayle if you've got anything you need handled before."

My legs were already starting to move again when she called after me, "Kean, one question."

Twisting my chest around, I glanced back at her and nodded slightly.

Mirala crossed her arms across her chest, leaning against the wall as she did so. "Do you honestly think that this plan is going to work?"

"Didn't I say-"

"I don't care what you said in front of everyone else." She cut me off before I could finish the question. "I want to know how many of us are going to end up dead here."

I let out a tight exhale between my teeth. "If Mascal's intelligence is somewhat accurate, most of us should live."

There was a grunting sound. "And if it's not?"

"Expect to lose people." Came my blunt reply. "Even if our first wave goes off according to plan, the follow-up is going to be a bloody mess. Regiments are going to coordinate as best they can but it's going to be a bitch."

"And we'll be under their heavy guns the entire time." She pointed out needlessly. "Especially after dawn."

."Really?" I drawled, my own sarcasm coming out to play. "I had no fucking idea they had larger and better guns than us."

"Ass." The mutter was practically reflexive, and she didn't seem to pause in the slightest. "My point is I don't want to die. Neither do you."

"And what exactly are our other options?" I asked. "Breaking out contracts would be as good as death."

"I'm not saying we _break_ it," She hedged. "Just... that we move with the currents rather than the wind."

I grimaced. "Tried to talk Kaste into that already. He said we have a better chance of surviving if everyone keeps pushing. Delays are going to get him... annoyed with us."

"That's... Athame's fucking... shit." Arms uncrossed and fell to her hips. "You mean he'd have us shot."

"Not his style. He'd give us minders to make sure we got moving, and he'd be sure to tell T'Ravt about it." I winced a little at the memory of him killing his own grandson for fucking with Shepard and I. "But if we pushed him hard enough he'd absolutely start punishing us in more... severe fashions. I think out best bet for survival is to stick with the 121st and 54th as tight as we can."

"Safety in numbers?"

I shrugged in her people's way, rolling my left shoulder. "More guns shooting at people shooting at us. Artillery we could try and commandeer. Commanders I trust to keep us updated."

Any reply she might have had was swallowed by the whistling shriek of an incoming round, followed the cacophony of an exploding shell less than a few dozen meters away. I started swearing as the ground seemed to shake beneath my legs, Mirala stumbling forwards with shouted oaths of her own. Grabbing each others arms, we broke into an awkward, shuffling jog that kept our center of balance low.

More shells came in, but with the sporadic intensity of harassing fire rather than the continuous roar that indicated a raid was imminent. Still, neither of us wanted to be above ground, even in a trench, and we hauled our asses back towards the bunker.

Mirala had gotten ahead of me, and I all but bowled over her when we turned the last corner in the trenches to approach our dug-out.

"What the fuck are you _doing_ priest?" Her shout was loud enough to make my ears ring in advance of another shell going off far too close for comfort.

Shaking my head, I stepped around her to see what the fuck she was talking about...and felt my mouth drop open.

Thul was sitting in the middle of the trench, as if there _wasn't_ death flying around above us. His helmet was off and resting between his crossed legs, and he had both hands resting on it. If that wasn't bad enough, the big idiot had removed his fucking _armor_ to reveal a plain shirt stained with sweat and flecks of his own blood.

"Meditating." He replied in between explosions, his tone utterly calm and serene. All four of his eyes were closed, and his breathing was even. "If this is to be the final push, I wish to be prepared for whatever might happen."

"And you couldn't do that inside?" I growled, giving the Ardat Yakshi a bit of a push to get her going again. "Put your bloody armor on and get into cover. We don't need you dead before this even gets going."

Another blast drowned his initial reply, and I had to ask him to repeat himself as we lurched closer to him. "I said that I would hope that you do not need me dead even after we begin." Faint amusement colored his voice. "I am quite content to remain here my friend."

"Well I'm not content to leave you out here." I growled, almost flinching as shot impacted somewhere not nearly far enough away fro my liking. "Inside. Now."

"No." Though outwardly his tone seemed like it was still calm, I could hear the almost silent edge he added. "Look around, Cie."

Glowering inside my helmet, I did so.

Heads were extended from hidey holes burrowed into the trench wall, and I could see several more looking out from the doorway leading to the other dugout in this section of the reserve lines. They were all simply staring at kneeling priest, though a few were visibly glancing between him and us as they reacted to our arrival.

"If I went inside now," Thul continued placidly. "What would it tell them?"

"That you're intelligent and don't want to die?" I offered.

One of his eyes cracked open and flicked to me.

"Yeah... I get it." Exhaling, I shook my head and half-closed my eyes, listening as best I could. The blasts were, mostly, falling more towards the front and support lines. We were just catching the overshots. "But you really had to pick _now_ to do this?"

"Yes."

When no further explanation came, I sighed and reached up to rub my face. Fingers smacked into my helmet, so I settled for swearing at nothing in specific. Mirala just shook her head at the both of us, muttered something uncomplimentary that another artillery round swallowed up, stepped around him, and then ducked through the doorway without a glance back.

Of course with her gone, and me just standing there, I started to realize how awkward of a position this was. Thul was obviously not about to do the _intelligent_ thing and go into the dugout, out of a desire to continue to build the morale of the, mostly Batarian, viewers. How fast fucking rumors could travel in this army never ceased to amaze me, and I didn't doubt that half of the regiments would have heard a variation of him just sitting out in the middle of a light barrage.

Shit. By the time it got to the end it would probably have turned into him sitting there naked, on the surface, in the middle of an all-out bombardment. Much like how my own short fight with the stupid berserker two months ago had turned into something that made me twitch every time I heard someone repeat a supposed part of it.

"I'm going to go inspect my armor." I exhaled the words almost tiredly. Going inside after Mirala would be just as bad as Thul getting up and doing so thanks to the stupid inflation of my combat prowess. Maybe I could get inside of it and double-check-

"Cie." My friend interrupted me mid-thought stream, and it took me a moment to regain my senses and focus on what he was saying. "Would you care to sit beside me?"

I blinked and just kind of... stared at him. Another overshot exploded far too close for for comfort, and I reflexively twitched. "As a matter of fact.. no. I wouldn't."

"Why not?" His eye had closed again, and he hadn't moved so much as a finger at the explosion.

"Because I would rather be somewhere with a lower chance of, you know, _death_?"

"A round could hit the bunker, or your armor, as easily as it could land here." He pointed out easily.

"Maybe." I allowed, "But the odds are lower that it would kill us."

"Sometimes one must simply believe that such a thing will not happen," His lips curled a little. "And be prepared to accept it if it does happen. It would greatly improve the morale of those who see us."

I continued to stare at him through my helmet. "Thul... one, we've had the conversion talk before. Two, seeing me walk calmly away would do that as well."

"Not as well. What is-" A blast made me half-duck, and several of our watchers ducked their heads back into the tiny alcoves they'd burrowed into the trench walls. Thul waited for a moment, and then continued as if it hadn't happened. "-the worst that might happen?"

"Death?" I repeated, annoyed.

"In which case you would see Rane'li again."

The words reached something in the back of my mind, a locked boxed of painful memories that shuddered nearly open at the very mention of her name. I'd taken three steps towards him before I was even aware that I was moving, something like a snarl coming out of my throat. He _knew_ not to mention her name. I couldn't die yet, couldn't even think about her. Not until I'd avenged her. Not until I'd watched Aria crush the life out of that motherfucking asshole.

Ignoring my anger entirely, my friend carried on. "You will never heal if you do not remember her, Cieran. If we fall today, tomorrow, a week from now, and you are raised by the Pillars to join her, would you carry the pain of failure for eternity?"

My hands tightened into fists at the obvious fucking answer.

"Would she want you to?"

I needed a few attempts before I could force myself to utter actual words, though each was clipped and harsh. "You didn't know her."

"No, I did not." He agreed quietly. "But I worry that you only remember her final moments, her passing. Not the woman who loved you."

That harpoon struck home, and I felt myself visibly flinch as I rifled through my memories. When _had_ I last thought about Rane? Beyond how she'd died. When had I thought about her as my lover?

A very, very long time.

"You want me to sit in the middle of a trench," An explosion interrupted me, but this time I didn't flinch. "Under sporadic artillery fire, to think about Rane before we go into battle."

Thul tilted his head into the position for a simple request from one equal to another. "Yes."

"If we both survive this," Reaching up, I detached my helmet and pulled it off. "I am going to beat you to within a breath of death."

A ghost of a smile tugged at his plain features. "You are of course free to try my friend."

Shaking my head and muttering dark words about annoying priests, I moved over until I was next to him. I didn't sit prim and proper as he was, instead more or less collapsing onto the ground with my back against the trench wall. Crossing my arms, I let out a slow breath and closed my eyes.

I was just about to expose the buried memories, to pull them up from the dark depths, when someone called out from the nearest alcove. "Reyja'krem, please, you should... should... um..."

The young lowborn Batarian visibly fell apart when I snapped my eyes open, turned my chest, and glared furiously at him. His mouth moved a few more times but no words came out, his head ducking so far to the left I thought he might break it.

That done with, I pointedly returned to my own at-rest position and exhaled heavily once again.

I wasn't much good at the meditation thing. Especially not with artillery still going off above us, the smarter, less emotional part of my brain screaming that shrapnel would murder me without my helmet on.

Pushing the thoughts aside took time.

Remembering Rane took... longer.

Not her death, not the limp armor that I'd knelt over with Voya at my side. With Sederis looming in the background as she kept everyone away from us. Something I still owed her for, come to think of it. Those memories came easily, quickly. They'd haunted my nightmares enough that it didn't take more than a breath to summon them.

Her life..

The chehala flavored kisses that we'd shared. The worry in her dark eyes when I'd first tried to smoke the leaves. Times we'd woken up hungover and had to help one another stay upright, or when she'd cheated wildly at cards to steal money from Tris and Dorvahn. All of the times we'd been together in bed. Of coaxing her out of her meek, lowborn shell. The caustic yet never openly impolite comments she could offer when a social superior did something stupid.

Of the smaller things we'd done in our time together. The meals we'd eaten, the drinks we'd shared. The times we'd teased Illyan or annoyed Voya, or tried to make Jarrick feel more at home. The feel of her skin, the sound of her voice, the sight of her smile...

"Boss." Illyan's voice woke me an eternity later, and I slowly blinked and forced my eyes open. She was standing above me, along with Voya, the dusk light of sunset throwing gentle highlights across their battered armor.

"Time to get ready, Cie." The Quarian added, her voice uncharacteristically subdued.

"Yeah..." Shaking my head, I picked my helmet up and quickly pulled it over my face to hide the trails that were probably all too obvious thanks to the crap on my skin. "Yeah. Let's get this over with."

* * *

**Next up is Operation: Breakthroughs II**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we finally are. The final combat operation of this story. Two more chapters until the interlude that will serve as the climax, and then we will begin the epilogue.
> 
> I believe that everyone has noticed at this point, but I'll reiterate all the same. The winner of the romance poll was Jona Sederis, and she and Cie now have their own 'non-cannon' side story named "Strange Bedfellows". It's going to aim for comedy with a side of feelings, so hopefully everyone will enjoy it.
> 
> More information about AR: V Einherjar will be revealed as this story nears its final conclusion. The current plan is to do something quite different from the last few stories, but I want to get some more thoughts worked out before I reveal anything.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	41. Operation: Breakthroughs II

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

**Operation: Breakthroughs II**

_Date: 01-11-2184_

_Location: Capital Front, Redcliffe, Feralda System, Northern Terminus_

* * *

The Turian militia-woman screamed as my makeshift bayonet slammed through her flimsy armor and tore into her guts. The blade itself was little more than a shard of metal crudely welded to my canon, but the raw strength behind the blow tore through her plates and flesh and sent her tumbling to the ground. She curled reflexively around herself as blue blood poured out of her, for all appearances out of the fight.

Knowing better, I shifted my heavy weapon around and executed her with a single round to the head. Not watching the mess that that made, my eyes were already flicking around the panoramic vision provided by my suit's cameras. I'd barely gotten my head back up when a carnage round slammed into my left shoulder, sending me stumbling back as alarms blared at the worrying levels of damage.

Snarling, I snapped my left hand up to grip my gun. The heavy weapon thundered out three quick rounds, two of which turned the offending Vorcha into yet another broken corpse sprawled across the rolling plains. Stepping out from behind me, Illyan cut loose with a long burst from her assault rifle, cutting down another before it could do more than send a few light rounds skipping off of my chest.

" _Watch the right!"_ Voya snapped from wherever she'd setup with her sniper rifle, " _Squad is suppressing Thul and Callada!"_

"See them." The words came out more as a groan than actual syllables, but I managed to shift my heavy frame around. A mixed-species group was moving by fire and advance, keeping my companions pinned behind the wreck of one of the militia's burning supply trucks. Rather than use my gun, I shifted my left hand and made several gestures.

The suit's VI handled the calculations over the next second or so, and then the last volley of grenades _whumped_ their way free of the launchers on either of my shoulders. Tumbling through the air, the six small canisters detonated in sequence while they were still above the targets, showering them with fragments. Half of the militia went down, dead or incapacitated. Of the remaining four, one dropped to a knee, while the other three simply staggered, evidently having upgraded their barriers or armor sufficiently to protect them.

At least, to protect them from the light grenade volley. Against Illyan and I shifting to full auto and blasting away it wasn't enough to do more than let them live for a few more breaths.

"You're clear Thul." I croaked out.

" _Thank you my friend."_ His own voice wasn't much better, but he and the Asari dutifully rose and resumed shooting short bursts at their own targets. There weren't many at that point, most of the militia having aborted the counter-attack in favor of running back to their current defensive line at the base of Fortress Seven.

Not more than a few hundred meters away, the massive, earthen hulk of the structure loomed ahead of us. Protruding from the cratered ground like bizarre growths were the tall GARDIAN towers, their defensive barriers flickering occasionally as mortars or light artillery overshot the defenses. Deeper flashes responded from gun-bays sunken into the soil, the heavy guns hurling death right back at what support was trying to help us. Most of the machine gun nests had been smashed over the last few months by the artillery we'd hurled into it whenever the guns weren't supporting an attack, which was the only reason we could even survive being where we were.

Though how long that would last was anyone's guess.

"Shit," I swore as one last group decided to try and launch an attack on their own, my distracted brain barely recognizing the movement. "Deet, your left!"

"Got it!" His voice boomed from his own armor, maybe ten meters to my own left. Like me he had lost his shield several days before, and was holding his cannon in both hands. At my shout, he promptly swung it around and held the trigger down. The group attempting to flank us flung themselves to the ground.

Trena and the Kithans, all three settled in kneeling positions between our two suits of power armor, joined with their own steady barrages of gunfire a few breaths later. Maybe four of the militia lived long enough to get up and make a run for it. Voya, or another sniper, got two of them from behind as they bolted, but the other pair made it into an artillery crater.

I waited a good minute, focusing on my breathing, waiting for anymore attempts. When none came, I leaned to my left and tried to suckle some water out of the straw sticking out from the side of the armored box around my skull. None came out. I wasted a few moments trying for a drop or two, and then a few more trying to remember when there'd been any in there. When my mouth remained dry, and my brain couldn't decide if that had been earlier today or sometime yesterday, I gave up on both efforts.

"Sitrep." The words came out as a croak, my parched throat protesting the motion. "Kaste, how are we looking?"

" _Increasingly encircled."_ Major Vithi Kaste replied almost at once, her voice broken from far too many days shouting to simply be heard. " _That attack on the right split the 54th. We've got one formation with us, but it's all Thui can do to keep the rest of her unit intact. Don't even ask me about the left flank, I haven't been able to raise the 70th's headquarters since last night."_

"Crap." I groaned the word tiredly, wishing I could just crawl out of my armor and into a hole to collapse. There was a clatter of metal on my back as Illyan simply slumped against me, her head bowed and resting against the Krogan crest dangling from my right shoulder. Considering how the past week and a half had gone, it was entirely possible that she was already asleep. "They behind us already?"

" _They're still working on it. Third company split down to squads and is harassing the flankers as they can."_

I grimaced. "They can't keep that up for long."

_"Spirits no, but their actions and the fact that the enemy is as tired as we are are the only reasons we're still alive."_

Grunting, I parted my lips and let out a whistling breath as I fought not to slump over. Standing around in the open like this wasn't smart, but we didn't exactly have any cover to use. But as she'd said... even as I watched a pair of militia stopped jogging entirely, simply shuffling towards their make-shift foxholes with weary, trudging motions.

I didn't bother to shoot at them, doing so would break the unspoken agreement for a cease-fire that was running up and down the lines. "So we're exhausted, about cut off from our support, and about to be surrounded entirely. Do you have any good news? Did your uncle stop that counter-attack?"

" _It's been slowed down across seven sectors, but only stopped in three."_ There was a moment of hesitation. " _All of the garrison units were committed, there isn't a reserve to fill the gaps in the lines."_

What was left of the garrison units she meant. Our initial attack had been wildly successful, with Mascal's intelligence evidently being entirely correct. The sequential attacks had gotten hit by artillery, as usual, but once we'd gotten to the enemy's lines we'd breached them with almost appalling ease.

But after the reserve soldiers had rotated into the line, with orders to pursue at a distance, they'd gone ahead and thrown everything into chaos. Disdaining Kaste's cautious plan, they'd pursued the retreating militia aggressively, launching direct attacks wherever they could. In a few places that had let them encircle and drown a few units, but more often than not the veteran enemy had mauled them before calling down artillery from the fortress to smash their attackers further.

The resultant chaos as two of the garrison regiments routed entirely had thrown the entire fight into chaos. Kaste had had to commit second-rate units to plug the hole, and then send first-rate units to chase down the units that had continued to advance despite increasingly furious orders to stop. We'd caught up with our target group barely two kilometers from the fortress, a position they'd managed to get to by luck more than skill, and Major Kaste ordered them to fall back.

Their commander had refused.

Voya executed him.

His executive officer, thus enlightened, quite sensibly obeyed orders, but by that point the damage was done. Instead of having a neat, continuous front, the lines resembled nothing more than a giant mess of salients in both directions. The 32nd was doing all it could to protect the army's right flank but was becoming increasingly hard pressed as more reinforcements moved in our direction. The main counter-stroke had hit us on the far left, supported by the fort's guns, and had been rolling the army back for nearly two days now.

"So no one is going to come and fill the gaps on our sides." It was a quiet statement. "Hope you've got a new plan Vithi."

" _No, just the old one."_

My eyes closed as I processed that. "Please tell me you're joking."

" _We're in the fort's shadow, the main guns can't depress to hit us."_ Kaste pointed out, her tones resolute. " _If we retreat you know they'll shift fire and annihilate us. Consolidating will see us encircled to die slowly without food or water, which we're low on as it is. That leaves one direction to go."_

I bowed my head as best I could inside of the armored box around it. "When?"

" _As soon as I can get the Third Company reformed. The formation from the 54th and 1st company will lead, I want you up with us."_

"Us?" I asked quietly.

There was a long moment of silence. " _I can do the math as well as you or any other soldier in this army. If I don't lead from the front, none of them will follow."_

Which was probably true... but they might not follow anyway. The army had held together through more crap than I'd imagine nearly any other Terminus based force might have. Most of that had been through circumstance, being trapped in front of an enemy no sane being would surrender to. But now... the cautious battle plan had been something the common soldiers had been heavily briefed on, to let them know their part in it. That Kaste cared about keeping everyone alive, that he was protecting his people as much as he was trying to kill the enemy.

But the plan had gone to shit, thrown into chaos by idiots we hadn't even wanted to be here in the first place, and the army was dying as a result. Its component parts were too tired, too mentally drained, too broken. The only reason the counter-attack hadn't shattered the entire force was because it was compromised of militia and volunteers as tired and near their end as we were.

Of course... they shouldn't have been able to counter-attack at all. Mascal's intelligence might have been accurate, but he'd killed us all the same. His army, on the other side of the city, had ceased all offensive operations. In some places even pulling back to 'consolidate', giving Zaen's forces breathing space and the ability to shift their reserves around to meet our disorganized push.

"What's the actual plan?"

" _The fortress should still have a minimal garrison, and the troops in front of us are as tried as we are. If we can get everyone going for one heavy push and get inside, we can turn their own guns onto them."_

"And if the place is fully manned and operational?"

" _We're dead."_ She replied bluntly.

I blinked a few times, then snorted. "Well at least we know that much. What do you want from us?"

" _Find the power plant and make sure they don't disable it. I'll send other teams to the artillery stockpiles to make sure those aren't blown either."_ There was a short exhale. " _Hopefully we'll take the guns and be able to support everyone else, but even if they spike them we'll at least have a better defensive position inside, likely with stores. We could hold out until my uncle can reform the army."_

"Got it." I exhaled heavily, staring at the squad, looming shape in the near-distance. "One last push."

" _One last push._ " She agreed quietly. " _See you inside Kean. I'll give you a warning at five minutes prior to step-off."_

"Thanks." I replied quietly, cutting the line after her agreement. "Thul, Trena. You hear that?"

"Yeah." The latter groaned from where she was laying behind an embankment off to my left. The Kithans were beside her, on their backs with their helmets touching. Dietrich still looming in the background, his own armor as battered as mine as he stood sentry. "Not how I thought this would go ape."

"Me either." I admitted. "Sorry I didn't stop you from coming with us."

She grunted loudly. "Not like I gave you a choice."

I snorted. "Yeah, but... shit Trena. Ethy-"

"Won't be the only girl to grow up without a father." Trena's voice didn't betray any emotion. "Ghai and I knew something like this could happen Cieran. She knew she might never see me again when she let me go."

That didn't make me feel any better. "Ayle and Amy have a message, in case?"

"Left one before this started." Her prone form seemed to shrug. "Assuming they make it out of here."

"Yeah.. assuming that..." Motion behind me made my eyes flick to that camera, only to see Voya carefully directing Glitch in our direction, with Washana shuffling along behind them. "Everyone heard the plan, right?"

"Such as it is." Thul rumbled, rising slowly before politely helping Callada to her own feet. "Our advance?"

"Deet, you save those smoke grenades?"

The was a grunt from the other suit's speakers as it lumbered over in our direction, everyone else rising and tiredly moving to huddle around where Illyan and I stood. "They're all I got left Cie. Two volleys."

"Right..." Half-closing my eyes, I tried to work out a clever plan. After maybe five breaths I gave up and just sighed. "Let 'em loose at step off, and again when we emerge. We make for that supply entrance the truck came out of. Once we're inside, Voya gets to the nearest terminal and finds the power source. Then we keep it on. Questions?"

Helmets that were pitted and scorched stared back at me, far too many of my friends leaning on one another just to stay upright. No one said anything.

"Thul?" I asked quietly. "Your turn."

The priest stepped forward, the rest of us backing away to form the usual ring around him. It took him a little longer than the normal few short breaths, instead there was nearly a minute of silence before he began to speak. "I am tired, my friends. I am hungry. I am thirsty. I desire nothing more than a bed and unending sleep so that I might finally rest. I believe I am entirely correct in my belief that you all feel the same."

There was a rumble of amused noises from the rest of us, and though I couldn't see his face through the helmet I felt comfortable in assuming that he was smiling slightly as he continued. "But we must go forth to do battle one last time. To fight an enemy we have little desire to war with yet again. Circumstance might dictate that we must, but such paltry motivation will not see us through the battle to come. We assault the enemy in their home, their fastness, a place they will defend to their deaths."

He took a long, quiet breath, his hands folding before him. "Those who stand here with me upon this battlefield, remember that we are kin. Not through simple accidents of birth, but through the shared pain of violence and battle, of blood spilled in defense and in anger. The Pillar of Unity teaches that such bonds are not something to be forsaken, not even by pain or death. We may be tired, all but broken, but we have one another. I care not for how few of us there are. I care not for the nature of our enemy, nor how many there are."

Thul's head rose, tilting hard to the right, seeming to challenge the fortress in the near distance. "That fortress is _ours_. It is not Zaen's. Not Mascal's. Not even Kaste's. I swear , by the Pillars I hold sacred, that we will claim it. With our allies, without them, I care not. This battle has gone on long enough, and today _we_ will end it."

" _Xentha mashan se'lai."_ Voya murmured in the slightly shocked silence that followed, her voice just short of vicious. " _Our_ fortress. I like the sound of that. Let's go take it."

Callada let out a chuckle that was half exhausted, half hysterical. "I'm fuckin' for that. Sick of this goddess-damned shithole."

"We concur." Idas rolled her shoulders while her mate made a show of checking over his rifle. "It's past time we were done here."

"You up for this girl?" Trena turned to glance at Washana.

The maiden shrugged tiredly in response. "Eclipse Operational Order Three. Mistress Sederis would entirely approve."

Mirala snorted. "Not sure what the fuck that says about us. We going to wait for Kaste or just say fuck it all and go now?"

I shrugged invisibly inside my armor, exhaustion giving me a strange, almost serene state of mind. We were probably dead in either case, so why the fuck not get it over with now, one way or the other? "I don't see a reason to wait, or you too tired to keep up?"

"I'm more than fast enough to keep up with your metal clad ass." She snickered, Catha shaking her head behind her as they both began to glow with biotic light.

"Then let's get this shit over with." Trena growled, pushing past Illyan and beginning to stalk towards the fortress. "Sooner we take it, sooner we can find it's fucking bar."

"A bar." The larger Asari groaned all but lustfully, turning to follow her as we all started walking. "You think it has one?"

"It better." Dietrich growled from his own armor, the heavy suit rolling forwards on my left, Glitch trailing silently behind us. "What kind of goddamned stronghold wouldn't have a bar? Better have fucking whiskey."

"I'm sure we can find some for you." I assured him before shifting my communications back to the command channel. "Hey, Vithi? We're tired of waiting, so we're going to go kick those fuckers out of our fortress."

For several long breaths there was nothing but silence, then she cautiously asked. " _Your what? Wait,_ _Kean... what in the name of the spirits are you doing?"_

"We are taking our fortress." Thul had apparently cut himself into the comline, his tone placid and conversational. As if we weren't accelerating towards an enemy who only now seemed to realize that a small group of tired lunatics was running right at them. "I'm afraid we are tired of this campaign, and very much desire it to end."

" _It's going to be another thirty minutes before we're organized to move."_ She protested.

"Vithi..." I exhaled. "We're getting this over with. Detach a squad to cover our section of the line, we'll try and make a mess on our way through to make shit easier on your people."

More silence. " _May the Spirits watch over you all. We'll come as quickly as we can."_

"Sounds good, just don't take too long about it." I replied as Dietrich's grenade launchers swung upwards, the ammo-wheels spinning as smoke grenades were flung down range. Firing them in increasing increments, the canisters promptly began to sputter and emit broad plumes of gray smoke that cut off the first few panicked bursts in our direction. "Someone want to explain why the fuck Deet and I are in the back?"

"Maybe because your armor is slow boss." Illyan pointed out, her gun snapping up as a figure staggered into view through the cloud we'd created. She and four others promptly cut the confused Turian down before he could even get us gun up. "Should upgrade that."

"We've already been over that." I pointed out, "Too much work. Trena watch your fucking left!"

"Faras watch my fucking left!" The Turian promptly gunned down a Vorcha, sparks flying off his barriers from the retaliatory shots. "Ape, we're going to be surrounded when we run out of smoke!"

"I know! Deet, how much longer we have?" My arms lowered even as I shouted, my bayonet ramming into the helmet of a militia soldier as he rose from a foxhole to try and shoot Thul in the back. Words cannot properly describe the mess of that particular impact.

"Another fifty meters or so!" He shouted back even as he trampled over another Vorcha as it appeared out of the smoke, everyone else finally slowing down enough to let him and I take the lead. "Plan?"

"We keep running. Voya, set Glitch into sentry mode when the smoke clears! It can cover our backs!"

She was silent for several moments, almost negligently flinging one of her few remaining incinerates towards a shape in the cloud. The orders would leave the mech behind, and as big and tough as it was..."Glitch! Override A-9! Travel distance, fifty meters. Secondary command sentry mode. Tertiary command, havoc!"

"Voice imprint acknowledged. Override accepted." The mech intoned flatly, then added two more words that I didn't expect. "Addendum. _Finally_."

The actual emotion in the final phrase made me flinch and glance at the Quarian jogging on my left. "Voya?"

"Not me!" She replied between pants for breath, and I was forced to reassess a little. Everyone else hadn't slowed down to let me and Dietrich take the lead, they'd slowed down because the short sprint was all they'd been able to manage. "Who the fuck knows what Rane did with it!"

"I knew that!" I shouted back, lowering my shoulder to simple slam my way through a Vorcha before it could do more than put a burst from it's submachine-gun into my chest. "What the fuck is havoc!?"

"It's going to kill everything that isn't us! Messily!"

Well at least it would be distracting. Though in a perverse twist of fate I had to hope that it _did_ get destroyed before any of our allies could show up then. The machine could barely tell friend from foe at the best of times.

After that point the wordplay more or less stopped, all of us focusing on the dual-businesses of survival and murder. The first stretch was easy enough, Dietrich's second volley of smoke grenades stretching out the promising fifty extra meters. Scattered gunfire was little more than annoying, and grew less so the deeper we went through the enemy's thin lines. We encountered fewer enemies within the clouds as well, as the now-veteran troops promptly got the fuck out of it rather than risk getting killed by their own allies firing blindly into the stuff.

That all changed once we emerged.

Screams and shouts of alarm promptly began to sound off as they realized that we were still moving towards the fortress. The heavy shot of the militia's basic guns began to tear through the air, far too many impacting barriers and armor as they adjusted to our unexpected location.

Dietrich and I probably could have made it, but everyone else would have been long dead if Glitch hadn't gone psychopathic.

The mech let out a piercing, feedback screech from its speakers that would have made a Geth Prime envious. Turning to the left, where the densest group of enemies seemed to be, it accelerated into a full charge, its gun emitting a continuous stream of tracers as the barrel began to glow.

Shots aimed at us were quickly redirected, slamming into the machine as it ran. Glitch ignored them entirely, cutting down at least four targets as it approached. The militia began to scatter, one not quite fast enough to dodge the machine's almost graceful lunge. Screaming began to sound as the mech's left hand wrapped around his helmet and began to squeeze.

I didn't see Glitch after that, the smoke shifting with the wind to obscure the fighting beyond flashes of muzzle fire. But the screams and electronic howls continued unabated behind us as our own running battle got going in earnest.

"See the entrance!" Callada shouted as we moved, "Eighty meters, just to the right! It's open!"

"See it!" I shouted back, flinching as a carnage round whipped just ahead of me, the shooter evidently thinking I was going faster than I actually was. "Must have been bringing supplies out!"

"Who... fucking cares!?" Trena snarled, her pistol barking as she fired at the militia trying to setup a firing line on our right. "Just move!"

We did. Dietrich shifted with me to the right, the pair of us trying to keep our bulks between the shooters and everyone else. Our retaliatory shots were accurate enough, thanks to the VI's correcting for our motions, but ours were largely the only ones hitting. And for every one or two that we managed to kill, more were rushing in our direction, drawn by the shouting and chaos.

Damage began to accumulate as we trudged on. Thul took a shoulder hit, drawing a surprisingly vicious oath before he ducked behind Dietrich's armor and kept going. Illyan yelped when a round skimmed across her right arm, shattering the armor plate and leaving purple blood dripping down her arm. Washan darted around Idas and grabbed the limb, somehow managing to wrap cloth around it even as they moved. A few steps later, Faras went down with a howl when blood misted out from his right leg. Catha and Idas barely slowed as they grabbed him, hauling him up and running on as best they could.

But it was us two humans taking the brunt of the fire. My vision began to shift into lower and lower resolutions as cameras were hit, forcing the VI to try and correct as best it could.. Another carnage round hit my right arm just above the gun, snapping the coolant feed and cutting the main myomer strands. A third smacked into my torso maybe fifteen meters later, completely blowing away the left-side panel and drawing a pained grunt as something smacked into my actual chest.

Cutting down to the two Batarians who'd shot them made me feel a little better, but the relief only lasted until someone managed to launch a full-on missile at Dietrich. In a fucked-up way he got lucky, the warhead hitting his gun and snapping it in half rather than hitting him just a bit higher and taking his head off. But while he was alive, he was effectively weaponless, stuck acting as little more than a walking target.

"Callada, Illyan!" I snarled, holding the trigger down by that point, scarcely caring what I was shooting at so long as it threw the enemy's aim off a bit. "Trena! Singularities right... now! Mirala, Catha, Washana, left!"

If we hadn't been so fucking tired I'd have had them throwing the things from the start, but I'd had to have them save themselves for when we needed it the most. The final run to get into the fortress's interior.

All six Asari promptly glowed a dark blue, snarls and groans of effort sounding as they threw their powers outward to our flanks. The artificial black holes sprang to life along our sides, the rounds that had been hitting us beginning to veer in crazy directions as the gravitational wells pulled at them.

"Grenades front!" Letting go of my gun, I brought my left hand up and made a few quick gestures. The tiny handful of soldiers guarding the open doorway were still shooting at us, their shots hitting my friends far too often. The overload, the last upgraded Shaaryak model I had, spat outwards from me and whirled to explode in bright electrical arcs. Voya's joined mine a breath later, ripping away whatever lingering protection they might have had before Thul hurled a more conventional grenade forwards to put them down for good.

"Go!" I snarled, skidding to a stop on the concrete pathway leading out from the doors and spinning around to fire at the militia trying to follow in our wake. Either Glitch was down or else had gone too far afield in its rampage. Callada let out a pained cry as a round found her flesh, staggering before Thul and Illyan grabbed her. "Get inside! Voya figure out how to close this fucking thing!"

The Quarian darted around me as fast as her exhausted legs would allow, all but lunging for a console as I started shooting again. Louder, harsher fire began to sound off behind me, but I couldn't risk even a glance at my rear camera. Too fucking many enemies were coming right at us for even a breath's worth of distraction.

With the coolant line cut, I couldn't just go full auto, instead aiming each shot as best I could. Figures tumbled when heavy rounds hit them, but their own shots were doing more damage to my failing armor. Armor plates worn by days of fighting began to fall apart, control lines and artificial muscles snapping. More shots found their way to me personally through the gaps, my personal barriers draining rapidly with each hit.

"Cie! Get in!" Voya all but screeched an eternity later.

It was all I could to shuffle backwards as alarms blared around my head in an unending cacophony. Enough systems were failing that that the carnage shot that blew into my right shoulder was actually helpful as it sent me staggering backwards to collapse inside the garage.

The world stopped spinning a few minutes later, the engine beneath me rattling to a halt when I finally managed to figure out how to move my chin to hit the power button. Even then Illyan had to use her one good arm to help pry what was left of the chest open so that I could wiggle my way out.

"Sitrep?" I groaned once I was sprawled on the floor, trying not to look at the.. .calling it armor wasn't quite accurate. It looked more like the wrecked exoskeleton that Xerol had first given to me back home, all those years ago now.

"We're secure, for the moment." Thul replied exhaustively. "Voya has the outer door locked down, it's reinforced and armored. The Pillars, or perhaps your goddess, were smiling upon us. If it had been closed what charges we have left wouldn't have breached it."

"Thank Athame for small favors." I murmured. "Interior?"

"One door, locked. Trena is standing guard."

"Good..." Shaking myself as Illyan loomed over me, I accepted her hand and let her haul me up before all but collapsing into her side. "The wounded?"

"I'll be all right, just hurts." She rumbled, helmet turning to glance to her right. "Faras will live, but he can't walk."

"Callada?"

"Hit her heart." Washana's voice was quiet. "She's gone sir. So is Catha."

"I... Call..." Sucking in a breath, I forced the emotions down. They wouldn't help. I could mourn her later. "Mirala, when did Catha get hit?"

"Early." The other demon murmured, shuffling tiredly away from where I could now see the pair of Asari laying on the floor, unmoving. Dietrich, also out of his suit, was kneeling beside one of them, his bearded head bowed. "Said she was fine."

"Arterial hit in her thigh." The medic reported. "I have no idea how she kept going as long as she did."

Swallowing, I managed a tight nod. "Thul?"

"Down to my pistol." He reported, making me glance over to him. He and Trena were in the back of the room, standing guard near a sealed door. His left arm was dangling motionless at his side. "Used Washana's last injection and medigel. It won't kill me."

"Cie." Voya's voice drew me in the other direction, the Quarian quietly shuffling away from the door controls to stand in front of me. "I've got the location for the power core."

The power core? Right, the plan. The thing we had to keep online so that the locals couldn't blow it apart or anything. "Faras? No chance of walking?"

"Muscle is cut." The stoic Turian replied simply. "We need someone to defend the dead anyway."

Yeah... we did. "Get a crate by the door controls. Anyone seems like they're about to hack in, blast the panel."

His helmet moved in a curt nod, Voya and Idas already moving. The latter grabbed a container and started hauling it into place, while the former quickly went over the controls with him.

Cautiously stepping away from Illyan, I quietly asked her to grab my helmet from my armor while I shuffled over towards Thul and Trena.

"Well, we're inside our fortress." I shook my head a little, feeling my sweat soaked hair sticking to my skin where it was tucked beneath my neck-guard. "Can't help but feel like we didn't think this through."

"No." He agreed quietly, bowing his head. "But would have waiting resulted in anything different?"

"Probably not." Trena muttered. "Lot more of those fuckers than we thought, must have been moving more troops in. Careful and cautious would have probably gotten nowhere."

"And maybe we caused enough chaos on our way through to assist Kaste's attack." Thul nodded.

Maybe we did... at the cost of Glitch, Callada, and Mirala's partner. And now we'd be leaving Faras alone... no. Not alone. Turning around, I called to the kneeling man. "Deet?"

He glanced up at me, his dark eyes seeming to be all the more sunken beneath his heavy brow. "What?"

"You're staying with Faras." I told him simply. "Protect them."

He blinked several times in evident confusion, then realization dawned. His mouth set in a firm line as he nodded.

"Everyone else..." Taking my hand cannon of my belt, I let it expand. The weapon was battered, covered in dirt and grime I hadn't had the time to clean, and the modifications I'd done to it were visibly close to simply breaking off entirely. But until they did, it was still a deadly weapon. Like us... I hoped. "Let's go."

* * *

_**Next up is Operation: Breakthroughs III** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because I didn't state as such in the last chapter, the reason for the very long delay between chapters was a combination of work and GenCon (the former annoying, the latter the most fun I've had in a long time). Work should again be slowing down now that our mid-project review is completed, leaving me with plenty of time to finish up this story. Goal is to have Vengeance all wrapped up by the end of the month at the very latest, but ideally much, much sooner than that.
> 
> As far as the next chapter goes, don't expect things to get any brighter.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	42. Operation: Breakthroughs III

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

**Operation: Breakthroughs III**

_Date: 01-11-2184_

_Location: Capital Front, Redcliffe, Feralda System, Northern Terminus_

* * *

There were three possible routes to the primary power core, buried deep within the heart of the fortress. After a few minutes of discussion around our omni-tools, we decided to split into two groups and to take the pair of routes that seemed less easy to defend. Which wasn't really saying much, it was the interior of a fortress, but we wanted to avoid the area marked as a barracks if at all possible.

I took Voya and Illyan as usual, and added Trena. Thul took Mirala, Idas, and Washana with him. That at least ensured that each team would have two biotics, or at least, a pair of people potentially capable of using biotics. Mirala was probably the only one of the four surviving Asari who'd be able to manage more than one or two exertions without passing out on the spot. Although that likely wasn't saying much, she probably could have managed only one or two more.

We emerged cautiously from the loading dock, fully expecting a cross-fire from either direction, only to be greeted by an empty hallway. Thul and I exchanged quick nods before separating, me leading my team left, he taking his to the right.

"Voya?" I asked quietly as we walked down our chosen path, all four of us with our guns up and ready. It would have been smarter to run, or at least jog, but I didn't think any of us had any more running left in us. "First right?"

"Yes." She murmured back, her omni-tool reflecting off of her armored visor as she double-checked the map. "Then a twenty meter hall, a right, and then the first left. Will take us to a cargo elevator."

"Elevator?" Trena muttered, carefully checking a side room as we passed it. "Storage, lots of crates... nothing alive. No stairs?"

"Thul's path has the stairs." The Quarian replied, all of us slowing up again as Illyan checked another room before waving us on and closing the door. "The elevator is our fastest way down unless you want to go through a barracks."

The big Asari spoke up at that, slowing her pace a bit to let me take my turn up front as we approached our first turn. "What happens if they get us stuck in the lift?"

"Then we all beat Voya to death for not overriding it appropriately." I replied before holding a hand up for silence. Shifting around, I pressed my back to the wall and shuffled my way to the corner. A quick glance around it revealed... another empty hallway. "Where the fuck is everyone?"

"We've been hitting this piece of shit for months." Trena reminded me as we got moving again. "All the light bunkers are smashed, didn't see many fire posts either. Why keep anyone but the essentials inside?"

I grunted. "Fair point."

"I hate it when you say that." Voya all but growled. "Stupid phrase."

"It is kind of annoying, isn't it?" Illyan agreed.

Rolling my eyes, I resisted the urge to snap back at them and focused on remembering the instructions. We passed down the short hallway without incident, or seeing anyone, and the next proceeded in much the same fashion. Our first encounter with the fortress's actual garrison came in hallway number four, the one containing the lift we wanted to take down to the lower levels.

"Shit." Trena, who'd been up front, growled as she jerked her head back from the corner she'd been peeking around. "Fire-team coming this way. Mines?"

"Yeah." She slid between Voya and I as the pair of us moved up, our omni-tools glowing as we spun up our tech launchers. "You got any upgraded ones left?"

"One overload, use it?"

I grunted quietly, able to hear the echoing clatter of metal and ceramic as people moved at speed with armor on. "Yeah. On three."

A silent three count later, we both stepped out into the open, the Quarian a half-step ahead of me so that she could rip their barriers away first. Her mine spat out from the launcher on her hip even as someone shouted in lowborn Batarian, bellowing something about infiltrators.

I got a good view of them as I stepped out, fingers triggering my own mine. Voya's upgraded overload exploded in a blue flash, the secondary charges sending more arcs across the crowded group. All six looked Batarian, and had been moving in two parallel lines down the hallway. They staggered and stumbled in surprise as the overload ripped at them, costing them the few breaths they had before my own mine flickered downrange and detonated in an orange-yellow flash of fire.

With how congested they were, even the basic little explosive was more than enough.

Not bothering to give any orders, I broke into the quickest shuffling jog I could manage, Voya at my right side as we moved towards the downed militia. Two were still alive, at least until my companion's Acolyte snapped out a pair of whining shots to finish them off.

"Clear!" I called back, not bothering to keep my voice down. The gunshots and explosions would have already alerted everyone on this floor. "Get to the lift!"

Illyan and Trena rounded the corner behind us, moving as quickly as the latter's short legs and exhausted body would allow. Voya and I had barely reached the wide cargo doors, and the Asari just reaching the corpses we'd left on the floor, when I heard more shouting carry down the halls.

"Shit ape!" Scales called as she vaulted a corpse, "Someone's demanding answers! Heard it from those helmets!"

I grimaced but didn't bother responding, instead electing to impatiently wait for the fucking doors to open. Voya darted in the breath they were wide enough, and I followed her in. She promptly got to work on the controls, hopefully making sure that we weren't about to get trapped inside, while I kept an arm out to frantically wave the other two inside.

They all but bowled me over as they came in, both heaving for air as the door began to close. It had just clicked shut when there was a quiet chime, and the doors promptly began to slide back open.

"What the-" Was as far as I got before a low-slung blur slammed into my shins and sent me sprawling back against Illyan. The war-varren let out a furious snarl, claws sending sparks flying off of my armor and the floor as it tried to lunge for my throat. Blind instinct took over, and I shoved hard with both of my legs. My armored feet took its back legs out, and the thing yelped as it tumbled off of me, limbs flailing to try and right itself.

Trena didn't let it, her own wordless snarl emerging from her tiny body as a foot stomped down hard onto its throat before her heavy pistol put a round into its head.

"Doors bitch!" Scales shouted at Voya as Illyan and I tried to untangle ourselves. More yipping, screeching howls were the only warning we had before another varren was sliding into view, legs scrambling for traction. Her pistol thundered again to put it down in a spray of blood.

Two more showed up just as I managed to rise to a crouch, my own hand cannon up and ready. I killed one, the oversized round taking it right in the snout. Illyan took the other, her rifle protruding over my shoulder as she put a burst into its side.

There was a shriek of an alarm, and then the elevator began moving, the doors still wide fucking open. Sparks flew in showers from the walls, making all of us flinch back. But the additional varren showing up in the hall didn't seem to like it any better than us. I saw at least three scrambling back from where they'd been about to try and hurl themselves into the lift with us.

"Voya!" I shouted, wincing as metal continued to shriek as the elevator moved. "The doors!?"

"Not now!" She all but snarled, her six long fingers flying across her omni-tool.

My mouth had just clicked shut when there was a shudder around us. The lift seemed to pause midway between floors, and only reluctantly lurch back into motion. We lurched down two more floors before coming to a final stop, the doors opening to an unlit room.

"What was that about?" I asked as we quickly got out of the thing, only to pause as I realized that only three of us had moved. Voya remained where she was.

"One moment." She murmured, entering several more commands before stabbing a final button almost viciously. "There, disabled this stupid piece of shit."

Grunting, I waited for my helmet to adjust to the lighting conditions before glancing around. We were in a store room of some kind... food storage, according the Batarian lettering on the nearest crates. "See my prior question."

"We didn't see anyone because it was a trap." Voya shook her head as she finally shut her omni-tool off and stepped out, "The lift was rigged to stay open and not move."

"Shit." I swore. It made a vicious kind of sense, they'd probably set all of the elevators in this area to do the same. Reaching up with my left hand, I touched a tiny button on my helmet. "Thul, they're setting traps for us."

" _For you."_ He grunted over the sound of gunfire, " _More obvious defenses here."_

"Problems?" I asked, watching as Illyan cautiously moved over to the room's only door.

" _No. Not even militia, armed support staff."_

A muscle in my cheek twitched a little at that, my face pulling into a frown. "We were hit by war varren."

Thul wasn't an idiot, a quiet oath escaping him as whatever firefight they were in sputtered to an end. " _There's blood pack in here with us. But why did you encounter them but we haven't? We're already down two levels, heading towards the stairs to take us down to yours."_

Why indeed... "Voya, did that lift go up as well?"

Glowing eyes blinked from behind the thin slit in her armor. "Yes."

"What level is the command center on?"

"The one above where we..." She let out a soft hiss. "They thought we were going for it. Someone important is there."

"Yeah... shit." I growled. They probably had had teams in place around all of the ways up to the next floor. The militia we'd run into had probably just been running late, busting their asses to try and get into one of the side rooms before we arrived. "We need to move faster. They'll realize we went down instead of up sooner rather than later. Illyan?"

"Hall is clear boss!" She reported, jerking her head back in from where she'd been glancing out into a hallway as dark as the room we were in. "What's with the lights?"

"Me." Voya's voice became smug as we got moving towards the door. "Thought we could use the advantage."

Trena grunted, clearly only not complimenting the idea because of who had thought of it. "What direction now?"

"Left, will take us into the main deep storage unit. Follow the wall until we reach the end of the room." The Quarian rattled off as Illyan opened the door, revealing a warehouse-like room maybe half-filled with crates and containers of various sizes. We were up on its second level, the door opening to a wire-mesh walkay set against the wall. Moving slowly proved to be just as loud as moving quickly, so we again gave up on any hope for stealth and just moved at a fast walk.

"Think that's all food?" Illyan asked, glancing down below us as we carried on.

"Food, random spare parts, tools, that kind of thing." Voya corrected with a slight shrug. "There's three other lifts that they use to pull things up to the smaller storage rooms in the higher levels."

I winced. "Please tell me you locked those down."

"Of course I did." Her voice turned insulted. "Whoever wrote security for this place wasn't any good, must not have trusted their inbred slaves to touch the code. The main crap is all locked down tight but there was next to nothing to protect things like elevators and lighting."

"Lucky fucking us." Trena muttered, a sentiment that we all quietly agreed with.

Opening the door at the end of our walkway made us all freeze, the sounds of echoing gunfire reaching us. Grimacing, I pushed off and broke into the fastest trot I could manage. Illyan kept up easily, but the other two quickly began to lag as we followed the helpful signs towards the power core control room.

"Thul," I panted, "Tell me that gunfire is you."

" _It's us._ " His voice crackled with interference and the much louder sounds of weapons firing. " _The control room staff has a decent kill-zone setup at the entrance we tried. Someone in there knows what they're doing. Taking cover behind control panels we can't risk hitting."_

My lips twisted. I hated competence in our enemies. "Hold and keep their attention on you, we'll hit them from the other side."

Rather than waste time telling me he'd heard me, Thul simply clicked his mic once and then cut the line. Turning my head around as I moved, I called for Voya and Tena to take their time and watch out backs while Illyan and I handled this part. They both promptly slowed down, and began to actually check the side rooms that we'd simply been bypassing. For our part, it didn't take us all that long to get there, and to start hearing shouted orders to go along with the steady measure of gunfire.

"Remember." I spoke in between deep breaths, "No explosives. Watch your shots. Need the controls intact."

"No shit boss." She snorted in reply, "Tired, not losing my mind."

"Right, sorry." Shaking my head, I slowed as we approached a shut door, night vision letting me read the 'Reactor Control Room' label just to the right of it. "Take the right side."

"Got it."

Exhaling heavily, I tried not to wince as my body once again reminded me of just how much pain it was in. My ribs ached with each breath, I was starting to limp thanks to my bloody ankle again, and something in my right shoulder was protesting almost every motion with that arm. I had no idea when the last had fucking happened, which seemed typical.

Shaking my head a bit, I forced myself to focus on what we were doing. There would be chairs inside, I could collapse into one of those in just a few minutes. Glancing over at Illyan, I saw her nod, let out a final heavy exhale, then slapped the door controls next to me.

The room wasn't overly large, just big enough for a half-dozen terminals or so to go with a central control station. Blacked-out windows on the left side likely served to give the crew of the reactor assembly itself, for whatever pointless reason the builders had thought up. My HUD flickered rapidly through several vision modes thanks to the lighting that the terminals were still giving off. The defenders had apparently cranked their brightness up and then directed them towards the far door. It wouldn't bother Thul or anyone else to look into them thanks to their own helmets, but it would let the unarmed staff see them coming.

And they very much were unarmored. There was five of them, all crouched down behind their computers, all with pistols pointed in the opposite direction. A dark-skinned human woman with dreadlocks down to her waist was the one shouting orders, making sure they kept up a steady suppressive fire that didn't overheat their basic weapons.

Leaning around the doorframe, I settled my gun in a two-handed grip, and elected to shoot her first. The round took her in the back and flung her against her terminal, a high-pitched scream of pain sounding as she went down. In the same breath, Illyan fired off a single shot from her own weapon, neatly executing a Batarian over by the windows.

The remaining three didn't last much longer. Bereft of their leader and hit from behind, they understandably panicked. One blasted away at the other doorway until his gun overheated, while the other two spun around and fired wildly in our direction. What few shots hit us were easily absorbed by our barriers. Ignoring them entirely, I carefully adjusted my aim and put a round into the chest of one of the other Batarians. Illyan cut down her own opponent scarcely a breath later, leaving just the idiot with his now useless weapon.

The human man dropped it, and started to put his hands in the air. "I surren-"

We both shot him before he could finish the word, sending more red mist to decorate the windows.

"Thul, we're clear!" I called as soon as I was sure that none of them were about to get back up. "Illyan, you know anything about industrial sized fusion reactors?"

Her helmet turned in my direction as a deep snort escaped her. "Sure boss. Built those all the time for Shaaryak remember?"

"Good." I elected to pretend I didn't recognize the sarcasm, "Sit your ass down and figure out how this one works."

"Yeah... why not?" Shaking her head, she shoved a corpse out of the way with one foot before dropping into a chair with a clatter of armor. Setting her rifle on the table, she spun the screen back to face her, toned the brightness down, and then started poking at glowing buttons. "If we blow up or have a melt down, not my fault."

"You read too many of Erana's stories." I replied, stepping over to the downed staff leader just as everyone else started to arrive. "Worst you can do is turn it off. I think."

"Probably." Voya agreed as she moved in ahead of Trena, quickly heading towards the chair nearest to Illyan's. "Did you find the main status panel?"

"I think this is it." The pair of them quickly began to talk in low tones, pointing at various forms and windows in their displays as they tried to figure out how to keep the power on.

I was about to start giving orders when scales elected to do so for me. "Ape, you're about to fall over. Sit your ass down somewhere. Thul, see if you can find a way to check the main reactor for bombs. Don't think it would go up like a fucking bomb, but it could still irradiate the crap out of us."

"Sensible." The priest nodded tiredly. He didn't look anymore the worse for wear, neither did Mirala or Washana, but Idas looked like she was limping badly as she shuffled into the room. "I'll leave Idas here to cover this entrance. We'll move as quickly as we can, they'll realize our location before long."

Trena and I both grunted, and then he and the other two Asari were gone, heading back out into the hall they'd come in from. Scales quickly turned around and headed back to the doorway we'd come in from, shutting and locking it before heading back to lean over Voya's shoulder to try and help make sense of the controls.

For my part, I found it simplest to go with what she'd said, and grabbed a chair before all but collapsing onto it. Idas didn't even bother with a chair, instead simply collapsing onto the ground, her armored back resting against the terminal I was sitting at.

"Ricochet." She muttered, her flanging voice disgusted. "Back of my ankle, half a second after a shotgun took my barriers down."

I grunted, fighting the urge to simply slump over. "Could have been worse. Could have been the shotgun hitting you."

"Yeah." There was a whistling exhale. "We should-"

My radio crackled as my omni-tool spun to life, interrupting her. Dietrich's exhausted voice echoing from my speakers. " _Cie, you still alive?"_

"For the moment." I replied, "Sitrep?"

" _We're still alive, just heard from Kaste. They've kicked off their attack, apparently we made enough chaos that it's going better than she thought it would."_

I exhaled with something like relief. "That's something. Anyone try to take you two out?"

" _Heard some idiots arguing through the outer door. Someone wanted to blow it before they realized it would leave a giant hole in their fort."_ He chuckled, but there wasn't any mirth in it. " _Think they're finally sending a squad to hit us from the inside. We're back enough from the door so a charge won't get us, and Kaste knows where we are. She's sending the formation from the 54_ _th_ _on the same route we took."_

Which would give them a chance to survive. All they had to do was hold until until reinforcements pounded on the door and got them to open it. In which case they'd be able to flood inside the place, and probably start opening more of the cargo entrances and sally-ports.

" _Faras wants to talk with Idas."_ The other human continued after a short pause. Grunting quietly in acknowledgment, I hit a few commands on my omni-tool to shift the channel to hers before cutting myself out of the call. Whatever he wanted to tell her was probably for her alone.

"Scales. Any progress over there?" I called, mostly to avoid listening to Idas's muffled voice.

"We know the Athame damned thing is online." She reported, batting Voya's hand away from the latter's screen before pointing at another image. "No, _that_ should be the menu we need, not that one."

Snorting, I felt my lips tug into a little grin at the vitriolic response, and leaned back in my chair to wait for the Turian to finish up before I asked Thul for a status update.

Slight as it was, the slight lean saved my life.

A roaring spear of warp-fire bore through the doorway that Trena had locked, scorched its way across my breastplate, blew through the console on my left, and continued right on through the far wall. The deafening noise of exploding electronics and tearing metal was entirely secondary to the pain, and I felt my throat tear from the involuntarily scream of pain.

I was on the ground a breath later, Idas hauling me out of the chair as she and everyone else started shouting in confusion. A second torrent of power melted another hole in the doorway, missing Trena by a foot at most, before vanishing out of the other door to fly down the other hallway.

"Illyan!" Scales all but screamed over the additional sounds of destruction, "Singularity through the hole! Now!"

More black-blue light appeared, this time guided by the two Asari in the room with us. The larger of my friends let out an almost pained grunt as she threw an arm forwards, her small singularity flickering out to snap through one of the melted holes in the door. It had barely blossomed into life before Trena hurled a tiny, controlled burst of power after it. The biotic detonated with the customarily loud explosion, the metal of the door actual curving inwards from the blast.

And somewhere, beyond that noise, beyond the fog of my own pain, I heard at least two feminine voices yowl in surprise and pain. I tried to say something, only for my throat to catch as the room seemed to spin.

Then I flinched as something smacked my helmet, blinking rapidly. Somehow I was now behind the center console, and Idas had apparently just hit me. "Cieran! Can you breath!?"

As if reminded that that was something they had to do, my lungs promptly inflated with air. It hurt, but not as badly as it probably should have. Shock, probably. Glancing down, I all but flinched. My chest plating was gone, cracked in half, and I could see the blood smeared all across the exposed skin.

"I..." Forcing my gaze away, I nodded once. "Help me up."

The strong Turian woman got an arm under me, and all but hauled me up to a knee. Somehow I'd kept a hold of my gun during the blackout, and I wasted no time in resting it on top of the desk and aiming it where the door had been. It had apparently gone from damaged to destroyed, with one of our attacker's corpses laying on top of it.

Worse, there was gunfire that wasn't from the room we were in. Thul's team must have been under attack as well.

Another enemy appeared momentarily, her midnight black armor thrown into sharp relief by the biotic glow around her. Even with the desk, my aim wasn't exactly steady, and my own shot missed wide. My companions managed better, but not enough to do more than throw her aim off a little. Another thin spear of warpfire barely missed taking Voya's head off, the Quairan yowling as it tore her barriers apart and burned her shoulder as she tried to duck.

Shit. They were going to take us out if this shit kept up. I couldn't aim for shit, but I still had mines. Letting go of my gun with my left hand, I was bringing my omni-tool up when our attackers elected for expediency over efficiency.

Four of them rushed through the doorway all at once, with no warning to herald the sudden charge. Trena tried to throw a singularity out, only to be hit by a flying tackle when one of them blurred into a biotic charge.

Caught in the middle of trying to shift tactics, I managed to get off only a single wild shot that didn't bother the Asari rushing Idas and myself in the slightest. She planted a single hand on the desk as she vaulted it, somehow managing to catch both of us in the head with her feet as she came over it.

And for the second time in under a minute, I found myself knocked senseless as my head rebounded off the floor. My body tried to curl around itself reflexively, only for hands to grab my gun and rip it from my hands. Grunts and groans of pain, more than a few of them coming from me, as my companions were subdued, disarmed, and thrown into a pile around me.

"You better have left them alive!" A prim, conceited little voice was speaking as I came back around. "He's only going to help us escape if they're alive!"

"They're still breathing." An older voice replied, each word bit off with strained patience. "See for yourself."

Someone grabbed my helmet, yanking it off in a single viscous motion. My eyes blinked on their own, trying to adjust the chaotic light from sparking electronics and flickering monitors.

"Yes... yes that looks like him. All the stupid fur." The first person spoke again, a blurry blue face getting right up into mine. "Are you sure it's breathing?"

My right fist answered the question for her. I was aiming for where I thought her nose was, but I think I got her right eye instead. Either way she let out a girlish scream and flailed away from me. Surprisingly no one kicked me or otherwise punished me for that bit of defiance, at least until It tried to get up off my side.

The cold metal of a gun pressed against my temple made me freeze.

"I told you he was still alive." The second voice had too much professionalism to let her amusement show beyond a tiny accent on the first few words. "Contact the assassin, tell him we have his prey and need his promised route off planet."

Somewhere in my skull, what was left of my brain tried to process what she was saying, but shit was... so fucking blurry. It was hard to connect thoughts together, beyond simple cause and effect.

Cause. I moved. Effect... I'd be killed. Incentive not to move.

Cause. Someone wanted us alive. Effect... all four of us were still breathing. Needed... we need that to continue.

Any further thoughts shattered like broken ice when a foot slammed into my burned chest, "This... this primitive _thing_ struck me!"

"Yes. It did. Get your omni-tool open and make the call already."

"We can't." Whiney maiden whined. "Not until the Krogan bring us the rest."

"We've lost contact with them." The competent one all but snarled back. "Make the goddess-damned call while we drag these things-get DOWN!"

The noise of battle again assaulted me, but the gun against my skull abruptly was pulled away before thundering as someone shot at someone else. And then several someones were shooting, and more warpfire was tearing through the air with dull roars of sound.

Get up... get up... I had to get up. Had to do something.

My vision began to finally refocus, as I rolled onto my stomach, getting my knees beneath me and getting my head up. Our attackers had spread out, and were pouring fire into the far door, tracer rounds and waprfire flying both from them and from whoever was shooting at them. Then my vision was obstructed as Illyan surged to her feet on my left, seizing one of the attacking commandos with her massive arms. The smaller Asari had time to let out a high pitched scream before she was hauled off of her feet and flung at the next one in line.

Both of them went down in a tumble of furious curses, trying to untangle themselves. Voya scrambled along the ground, grabbing her knife from where it had been apparently dropped onto the floor, before flinging herself at them with the blade rising and falling to the sounds of more screams.

Right. A weapon. Needed a weapon. Dropping my gaze, I glanced around before seeing my pistol maybe a meter away. Trying to lunge for it only resulted in my uncoordinated body falling onto its chest. Raw needles of pain traced every millimeter of the burn on my chest, and I had to grind my teeth against the darkness that tried to drag me into the depths.

Reaching out, I managed to get a hand around the grip of it before a girlish scream was followed by kick that drove me over and onto my back. A young Asari maiden, wearing a fucking green dress of all things, stared at me over the barrel of a shaking pistol.

She opened her mouth, probably to say something, only for our reinforcements to make their own rush.

Mirala came in first, little more than a dark blur as she slammed into one of the commandos. The competent one, from the sound of the scream. The pair rolled to a stop nearby, competent trying to direct her weapon.

They struck one another at about the same time. The Ardat Yakshi pulling a hand absolutely wreathed in dark energy back before driving it into the commando's helmet. Armor cracked and blood splattered, but not before her opponent pulled the trigger on her shotgun, the demon reflexively tumbling away as she screamed in pain.

In the background, I saw another surge of motion as Thul came into the room. He bobbed around a biotic attack, let his armor take a frantic gunshot, and then shoved his pistol beneath the final commando's chin and yanked the trigger.

Silence, except for the panting breaths and moans of pain from everyone still breathing, fell.

"I-I-I'll sh-shoot him!" The maiden still pointing a gun at me managed to stutter out, shifting a little awkwardly. I glanced down. Heels. She was wearing fucking heels. And her finger was around the trigger guard, rather than the trigger itself. "I s-swear to Ath-athame that I will!"

I ignored her, working my mouth until I found my voice. "Thul?"

"Cie." The man's voice was thready and smaller than it should have been, but he stumbled around the shattered desk I'd been sitting at all but a few moments before. Not seeming to pay attention to it, he swung his gun around and shot the maiden in the hand.

She screamed, flinging herself to the ground and howling at the top of her lungs. Illyan managed to crawl over before grabbing her by the head, shoving her mouth closed by brute strength. That was apparently all the energy she had left, because she let her head slump to rest on the floor.

"Thank you." Thul murmured, reaching up to remove his helmet. The motion brought his armor into better lighting, and I felt my heart seize up about the amount of damage it had suffered

"Thul... you're hit.."

"I am dying... in point of fact." It seemed to cost him the last of his strength to toss his helmet aside, because he all but fell onto his ass as he did so, his back coming to rest against the desk's side. "For that you have... my apologies."

"Washana..." I groaned, shaking my head. "Where is she? These idiots... they should have medigel."

"Wounded. Unconscious." He replied quietly, his lower eyes shutting. "Locked in a... side room... for safety."

"Scales." I spoke, but she was already stumbling over and dropping to one knee. Voya doing the same, heading to check on Mirala.

Hands started to tug at his armor, only for Thul to weakly bring one of his own up to grab hers. "I'm bleeding to death, Trena. If you pull it... off. It will simply happen... faster."

"Dammit... Athame's fucking..."

"Cie." He managed to return his voice to its normal timber for my name, my head raising from where I'd been about to let it hang low. "I chose my path... do not insult my memory... by taking blame."

"I'll..." I sucked in a breath. "Dammit Thul..."

"Consider it... my last annoying statement." He wheezed, starting to slump before Trena grabbed him, helping keep him upright. "Cie. Remember... the trench. Did you... did you find... her memory?"

"I... yeah..."

"Good. Good." His remaining eyes closed, and I saw his hands slowly shift in front of him, fingers folding together in the symbol for the Pillars. "I will... tell her... for..."

"Thank you." But even as I forced the words out, I knew that he wasn't there to hear them.

* * *

_**Next up is Interlude XI: Death Knell** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...yeah.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	43. Interlude XI: Death Knell

I don't own the Mass Effect.

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_Author's Forwarning: The Blocked Writer is on vacation, so he hasn't gone over this chapter. Any errors in it are mine alone._

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**Interlude XI: Death Knell**

_Date: 01-15-2184_

_Location: Capital City, Redcliffe, Feralda System, Northern Terminus_

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Taking the Hallmark card from the table, I stared at drawing of a depressed looking Basset Hound as it looked mournfully back up at me. Its sombrero hat was drooping from cartoon rain, and beneath its paws were the words. 'Sorry I missed your party.' Flicking it open, I glanced at the words on the interior.

'Next time for sure Eleven. Love, Nine and Zero-One.'

I shook my head and tossed the bit of heavy paper aside. Voya caught it deftly, her own long fingers opening it before she let out a tired curse.

Turning, I asked my question to the prisoner we'd dragged with us. "When did he leave?"

Ishanya Zaen looked like shit. Her eyes puffy from tears we didn't care about, her dress and heels replaced with cheap boots and laborer's garb, and thick bandaging where the medics had amputated her right hand at the wrist. The fingers of her remaining hand alternated between picking at them and at the thick collar around her neck, the biotic dampener serving to make sure she couldn't try anything.

"Three days ago." She murmured, her eyes firmly on the floor. "On the ship promised to my grandfather by Mascal."

"Seven days..." Shaking my head, I shuffled over to the table's other chair and collapsed into it. "Shit."

It hadn't taken much to get the basic story from her, at least what she knew. Which was the problem, she really didn't _know_ all that much.

Mascal's plan had apparently started out honestly enough. Not wanting to have to deal with weapons of mass destruction, had extended an offer to the Blood Pack Warlord shortly after landing. If Zaen refrained from using his nuclear stockpile, Mascal would refrain from any long-range orbital bombardments. He would also give Zaen a one-use IFF transponder that would get him past the blockade, to be used if the Warlord wanted to evacuate himself and his family.

After that, things got hazy. She thought that her grandfather and Mascal had made more deals than that. And she knew that Krom had gotten involved with the General, but she didn't know any details.

Her own role was predictable. Zero-One had seduced her, melded with her, and found out about the IFF. She and Krom had promptly assassinated Zaen, taken the codes, and gotten the fuck off world. They'd promised to return for her, but only if she had me and my friends prisoner. So she'd dragged the personal guards that Zaen had given her, and as many Krogan as she could dragoon using her family name, and headed to Fortress Seven to wait for us to show up.

My guess was Krom hadn't actually expected her to accomplish anything, and had probably just been amusing himself with the idea that we would kill her without realizing what was going on.

"How did he kill Zaen?" I asked, staring at nothing in particular.

"Poison. Ishikani spider venom, he paid one of the Blood Pack commanders for it."

I blinked, then glanced at Voya. She only shrugged, but Trena's voice spoke up before I could ask further.

"It's a Tuchankan predator. Kills big shit, lets the bodies rot to draw insects in so it can gorge itself. Poison is lethal even to Krogan." Scales explained from where she was leaning against the kitchen's entryway. "Supposed to be painful as fuck."

"Sounds like him." I muttered with a sigh. "You know anything else girl?"

"That they'll come for me." She spoke the words with the total assurance only a youthful moron in love could use.

"Just delusions then." Closing my eyes, I shook my head a little and sighed again. "Voya?"

The Quarian grunted, stepping around the table and drawing her gun. "Let's go _bosh'tet_. You're T'Ravt's problem now."

Pressing her lips together, the Asari at least showed _some_ sense by not saying anything, instead letting herself be lead out of the room. I heard Voya say something, Idas replying in low tones, then the outer doors clicked as they left the apartment entirely.

"You think the little bitch will actually take her back to the prisoner camp, or just shoot her somewhere?" Trena asked quietly

"Don't think Idas would let her, but either way she's not our problem anymore." I shrugged my left shoulder, the motion stretching the bandages wrapping entirely around my chest. "I'm more focused on... this."

"That Krom is gone, you mean."

"Yeah. He's..." Everything we'd fucking done. Losing Callada, Glitch, Thul... all the shit we'd gone through in that fucking siege. All of it had been to get Krom. And he was fucking gone. Our war was supposed to be _over._ Done with. Instead... instead we had this.

And I had no fucking idea what _this_ even was.

A blue hand came to rest on my shoulder, Trena's stout frame appearing as she stood next to me. "Come on Cie. Let's go home. You've still got to meet Ethy, and watch Ghai beat the crap out of me for leaving. Maybe we can find you a nice Batarian girl to have mindless sex with while we're at it."

The last brought a tiny snort from my nose. "Then what?"

"Then we spend at least a week getting so fucking drunk we forget our names, and I see how many women I can get you to sleep with." She shrugged. "Once that shit's done with... then we figure out how to corner and kill this asshole."

My lips twitched a little. "You're a terrible influence."

"Athame's ass, you say that like it's new information." Shifting her hand, she gently took my arm and helped to haul me upright. I could walk on my own, but once and a while I'd get hit by dizzy spells and it was best if someone was nearby while I moved. Fucking concussion. "Come on, that cruiser is supposed to be here any minute."

I grunted quietly as we slowly got moving. T'Ravt had shown up in her flagship the day of the final assault, which had at least had the effect of forcing Mascal into resuming his own attack on the other side of the city, as well as opening up the FTL buoy. Our first call had been to Sederis, politely demanding a ship be sent to get us off planet.

After all, my friends hadn't been concussed, and they'd pieced together that Krom was gone from our captors. Of course we hadn't realized that Zaen was dead at that point, and without him to direct things the various commanders had lost all sense of coordination. The Blood Pack began launching moronic counter-attacks that left the militia exposed, and the latter begin deserting or surrendering in droves. Especially on our front once Major Kaste had breached the fortress and taken the heavy guns intact.

Managing the surrenders and herding prisoners around had been the extent of what our people had had left in them. Mascal's personal army had been the one to sweep into the city proper, to seize the palace itself. After which he'd 'graciously' given us the location of Krom's home, and freed us from our duties to hunt him down. Asshole had probably known that he was gone, and had been gone.

But we'd had time to kill once we had gotten a few other details handled, so we'd come to investigate it regardless, on the off chance he'd fucked up and left a clue behind. All we'd found was the card and a bunch of destroyed computers.

Illyan and Amy Chang were waiting in the living room, the latter quickly stowing the tablet she'd been writing on as we emerged. "Leaving?"

"Yeah." I grunted quietly. "You sure you want to come with us?"

The Asian woman shrugged. "I can hardly finish the stories if I don't go with you, and honestly I think it's time for a change of scenery."

"You don't want to see what the new regime is like you mean." I countered.

She gave me a mildly abashed expression. "Well... no, not really. And since my partner left me... there really isn't any reason to stay."

I nodded, then glanced at Illyan next. "Any news from Ayle?"

"Yeah." She exhaled, turning to open the door for us. "Mirala's out of her latest surgery, docs say she'll make it. They're keeping her under for regen, just like they did with Shyeel."

"Like they... they woke Shy up?"

Her broad face nodded as we stepped out into the dusk, "Just a bit ago. Ayle's with her boss, explaining all the crap that's happened since she went down."

I winced a little. That wasn't going to be a fun conversation for anyone involved. "What about Faras? And Washana?"

"He's fine. Already patched up and helping Dietrich stand guard over Shyeel and Mirala. Washana lost the eye but she's awake and alert now." That was something at least. "Boss... what are we going to do about Mascal?"

Turning my chest slightly, I glanced up at her as we set off down the deserted streets. "What do you propose we do?"

"Tell T'Ravt." She replied promptly. "She's already on planet, why aren't we talking with her about all of this?"

"Because we don't have any fucking proof." Trena replied tiredly. "Nothing that would convince her to execute her senior general."

"Especially after he just won her Redcliffe, and it's not even a radioactive wasteland." I added.

"Fucking competent asshole." Scales muttered, her head bowed as she kicked at a rock. "He's killed everyone who fucking knew what kind of deals he made and deleted any records of his shit. All we've got is a prissy bitch of a maiden who doesn't know the beach from the fucking ocean."

"Nothing that T'Ravt would disapprove of, anyway." My left shoulder rolled. "She never hated Zaen, not like Ganar. Letting him walk in exchange for no nukes being used is probably a plan she'd have approved of to begin with."

"And all that asshole Mascal has to do is say that Krom fucked it up." Trena continued, all but growling. "Just because we think he was the fucking traitor, behind decryption day, and was purposefully trying to get our entire army killed doesn't mean we can fucking prove any of it."

Illyan frowned but said nothing, shaking her head and glancing away. Exhaling, I shook my own and tried to focus on just walking.

It didn't take us long to reach the section of the city that our expedition had claimed. All of the civilians having been summarily evicted at gunpoint while soldiers had thrown themselves onto beds, couches, chairs, or any other surface that looked like it would look comfortable to sleep on. The looting had started only after people had begun to wake up. Most of the theft was food related, though here and there I could see where other kinds of stores had been broken into.

The current sentries, a group of Batarians from the 5th Theodosian, all bowed their heads deeply to the left as we approached. I returned the gesture to my right, more shallowly, and expected to go in without a challenge as usual.

"Honored Reyja'krem." I blinked as one of them stepped into the way, his battered armor not showing any sign of rank. "With respect, you should proceed to headquarters. The Warlord is present and looking for you."

I grunted. "You know what she wants?"

"No sir."

Another grunt. "Thanks for the warning."

We exchanged another set of respectful nods, and then he was out of the way, letting us proceed down the street. It took us another fifteen minutes or so of walking to reach 'headquarters', Kaste having taken over a vid theater for the purpose. Amy and Illyan broke away from us at the entrance. The former, quite intelligently I thought, had no desire to get entangled in crap above her pay grade. And even now standing orders were for no one to travel alone, so Illyan went with her back to the hotel rooms we'd secured for ourselves.

That left Trena and I to breeze past the guards on sentry duty outside of the building, but inside we actually had to slow and identify ourselves to the Warlord's guards. They were stupidly conspicuous in their polished off-white armor, and were visibly unsettled by the way the dirt coated second-line troopers currently on duty were all but ignoring them.

I could hear the raised voices echoing from the open doors as we were escorted along, and recognized Major Kaste's voice at once.

"-that barefaced son of a bitch says!" She snarled. "If you hadn't landed we'd have already killed him."

The Lady Warlord's normally smooth voice had its own bite of anger to it. "Do not threaten your superior-"

"There is _nothing_ superior about that creature." Vithi spat back.

"General, control your niece."

Sighing, I found myself shaking my head as we walked into the room. An area near the curved screen had been cleared of chairs, and control and command equipment brought in. It was there that the confrontation was taking place, with the Lady Warlord in her resplendent armor glaring furiously at Major Kaste in her dirt covered garb. The General, clad in a plain uniform rather than anything heavier, was tiredly touching the latter on the shoulder as we approached.

But it was the figure just to T'Ravt's right that drew my attention the most.

The fingers of my right hand twitched into something like a claw before I forced them to relax at the sight of the armored Turian. "Mascal."

"Kean." The General replied me politely, as if I wasn't suppressing the urge to kill him. "Your target?"

"Gone." I grunted, not taking my eyes off of him. "Took the ride you promised Zaen after killing him."

Mandibles twitched once. "Disappointing."

My fingers twitched a bit closer to my gun. "Yeah. Disappointing."

The Warlord, alerted by either my tone or the motion, smoothly shifted in between me and the General. "Kean. You look... most unwell."

"Siege. Dead friends. Wounded. Target is gone." I recited tiredly, shaking my head a little. "Man responsible for most of that is right behind you."

Her navy lips pressed into a thin line. "That is a significant accusation, mercenary. I hope that you have some form of evidence to back up such a statement."

"He's too fucking good to leave evidence." Trena growled, clearly resisting the urge to pace. "Him and Krom both."

"Then I suggest you refrain." T'Ravt replied simply.

"Thank you Lady-"

"Do _not._ " The Warlord spun slightly to glare at Mascal in turn. "Your own accusations against General Kaste are proving to be just as lacking in supporting materials Baus."

Mandibles quivered, but Mascal ducked his head and shut up.

Several terse breaths worth of silence followed before she seemed to nod and address all of us in turn. "General Mascal. You have accused General Kaste of incompetence, dereliction of duty, and broached the subject of treason. General Kaste, you have done the same to General Mascal. Neither of you has provided any evidence beyond those of circumstance."

Vithi Kaste opened her mouth, only to snap it shut when her uncle visibly tightened his grip on her arm.

T'Ravt regarded her, then nodded. "General Mascal. You are relieved of duty, but are appointed to the governorship of this world as promised. Begin reconstruction efforts at once, coordinate with those of rank on Xentha for materials."

The Turian, not looking displeased about that in the slightest, bowed his head deeply. "Thank you, Lady Warlord."

Her chin twitched towards the door, and the asshole quickly turned and strode cockily towards it. The sheer smugness of the motion had my hand on the hilt of my gun, and only Trena frantically grabbing my arm stopped me from murdering him right there in the command center.

Mascal's back had been to me, so he'd missed it, but T'Ravt hadn't. She waited until the new Governor had left before all but snarling at me. "What. Was. That."

"An annoying, scaled fish stopping me from doing something deserved." I replied, ignoring her glare entirely in favor of throwing one of my own at Trena.

Scales simply shook her head slightly, murmuring barely loud enough for me to hear. "Not here, not now."

Pressing my lips together, I forced my hand off my weapon and turned to stare at nothing.

"Kean." T'Ravt all but growled.

"Nothing you need to fucking worry about." Trena volunteered for me. "He's had a shit week."

T'Ravt twitched slightly and turned her formidable glare on my companion. "T'laria. As uncouth as your father was."

Scales snorted. "Athame's fucking ass, really? The I-knew-your-parents routine? Fucking skip it."

The glare continued for a few moments, then she evidently dismissed Trena and turned back to Kaste. "In private, I will admit to being inclined to believe your statements rather than Mascal's. His actions, particular in isolating the FTL buoy, are alarming beyond the reasons he was able to offer. But without evidence I cannot move against him. His political allies on Xentha, and his support amongst the general population, are simply too strong to be countered without certifiable proof."

Which, as much as I fucking hated it, was logical reasoning on her part. She obviously didn't trust Mascal, but if he had that many allies... shit. She didn't rule by fiat like Aria. If that barefaced asshole was that popular on Xentha, she could face all kinds of problems at home right when she least could afford them.

Kaste's weathered mandibles twitched, his own mental waves likely reaching the same beach. "I understand, Lady Warlord."

She glanced at me, then back to him as her tone softened. "If Ganar hadn't launched his counter-attack when he had, I would have come to personally supervise this campaign when the FTL transmissions were throttled."

I grimaced slightly. "Odds on them coordinating that?"

"Kean." Her voice lowered in cold warning, and I bowed my head tiredly in surrender. "Unfortunately, all I can do is conduct my own investigations. Perhaps once the war is over, I will be able to deal with him with or without evidence. But unless you have proof you did not disclose..."

He shook his head once. "I do not. Kean?"

"Apartment was empty." I reported, mostly managing to keep my voice even. "Prisoner had nothing new."

The General nodded and spread his hands apart silently. T'Ravt nodded and then sighed. "The final matter, your own compensation. Given the difficulties of your campaign, I have elected to increase it."

He blinked, exchanging a quick look with his niece as their mandibles quievered. "Meaning?"

"A new city is under construction, on Xentha." She gave him a small smile. "It will be yours and your families to rule. Every surviving soldier will be given land, and a home will be built for them upon it. Officers will receive ownership stakes in the businesses already in place or planned to be located there."

Trena blinked rapidly. "What the fuck? That's... beyond fucking generous."

Her lips pursed, clearly displeased at the interruption. "I am aware, T'Laria, of what you went through. Of what the soldiers who fought in my name went through. It is not generosity, it is nothing more than the honor due to them."

It would also be a massive publicity and recruitment boon once it got out, but I had enough sense to keep my mouth shut. T'Ravt's opinions on honor were likely as strong as Kaste's, it was entirely possible that she considered the benefits to be secondary to her honor being satisfied.

Possible, at least.

"Kean." She continued, glancing at me. "The Silver Blades will be given their own independent compound. Waterfront space."

I blinked a few times, the cold anger at Mascal fluttering away as I just... stared at her. "...what?"

A genuine smile tugged at her dark lips. "Please inform me when you wish to take ownership."

The first thought that came to mind was that Ayle was going to be thrilled. Or at least, as thrilled as she could be given all of the other circumstances would allow. After a sharp nudge from Trena, I managed to tilt my head appropriately in thanks.

T'Ravt, evidently satisfied that things had been settled, exchanged a few more words with the General and the Major before breezing out of the room. I watched her go, listening as her guards called out to each other, likely forming up as they prepared to depart.

I was about to turn back to talk with Kaste when Trena simply looped an arm through mine, hard to do considering our relative heights, and all but starting hauling me away.

"Ape... what the shit was that?" She demanded quietly. "Athame's ass, in front of the Warlord?"

My lips pressed together in annoyance. "Yeah, I get it."

"Do you?" Trena growled. "Seriously, do you?"

"Yes." I forced the word out.

It was her turn to make a line out of her mouth as she glanced away. "Cie... shit. Just promise me you're not going to do something fucking stupid."

"What, you expect me to snap and murder him in the street?"

"Goddess no..." She shook her head as we exited the room, quickly moving through the hallway and into the concessions and welcoming area once again. "Well... you did come fucking close back there. So yes, I am."

"Yeah..." I exhaled, something writhing inside of me for a moment. "I won't do anything stupid."

The problem with the words was that Trena knew me, better than anyone else still living. "Ape... don't do anything _smart_ either."

I was opening my mouth to retort as we stepped outside, to find an unexpected image. A luxury aircar was grounded just outside of the theater, and Mascal was standing there harranging the driver. T'Ravt was visible just down the street, her cordon of guards formed up around the shuttle that they'd apparently called for her.

"-telling you there's nothing I can do!" Mascal's driver was a Terminus Quarian, his voice both annoyed and familiar as he gestured at the engine block. "The coolant line _snapped._ This thing isn't going anywhere sir!"

The former General, now Governor growled, mandibles twitching as he stepped back from the vehicle. As he did so, he turned slightly, and caught sight of Trena and I emerging from the building.

"I suppose you think this is amusing, Kean." He growled. "This is the third of my vehicles to fail in less than two days."

I fought to keep my face impassive. Well, I fought not to burst out laughing, but amusement still colored my voice. "Sucks to be you."

My tone set him off further. "You did this, didn't you? You and that old fool."

My eyes blinked a little at the anger. And the direction it was going. "Why the fuck would I sabotage your fucking limousine? Where would I get the _time?"_

"You're laughing." He retorted.

"Obviously." I didn't manage to smother a snicker at him bitching out a driver who was clearly at the end of his own patience. "Maybe you should try a more practical vehicle?"

Mandibles twitched several times. "Am I paying you for your opinion, mercenary?"

"Free of fucking charge." Trena snorted, clearly as amused as I was. "We're not your fucking employees anymore asshole, campaign is over."

Mascal started to snarl, visibly forced himself to calm down, and then twitched his head into a tiny nod. "So you deny sabotaging my vehicles?"

"I think it's amusing as shit to see you throwing a fit like this," I waved a hand at him, "But I can't claim responsibility."

"I believe," His voice remained low and tightly controlled, "That you are lying."

"Your prerogative." I replied with a shrug.

"I have been having other problems over the past several days." Mascal continued, still staring hard at me. "Tablets failing. Uniforms going missing. Weapons disassembled. Aircars breaking down."

"Sucks to be you." I repeated, thought my tone and smile grew a bit more vicious. Being unable to kill him was far more tolerable now that I knew that other people were making his life go to shit.

"I am the Governor of this world." He reminded my unnecessarily. "I have the authority to hold you for questioning. Interrogations even."

I blinked at him, but I had time to think as T'Ravt's shuttle finally lifted off with a dull roar. Where the fuck was this power trip coming from? Had he been harassed _that_ badly? He had listed quite a few items... it was entirely possible that he was. Especially if our soldiers were being smart and hiring locals to do the actual sabotage. The local citizenry would probably be all too happy to both take their money and to fuck things up for their occupiers, even if it was the same occupiers who were paying them.

But why the fuck was he pushing this? Here of all places? We were surrounded by men and women who would shoot him and not feel anything but recoil. Shit, T'Ravt had probably made a public statement on her way out to make sure that none of them tried to, otherwise he'd have already been taken down.

He thought he was safe because of her blessing, and was pushing it because he was pissed off.

"I don't really care what you _think_ your authority is." I informed him once the echoes had faded.

"You are not doing yourself any favors, mercenary." Mandibles twitched. "In point of fact, you are increasingly convincing me that you are involved."

"Ape." Trena cut in, shaking her head as she glanced at her omni-tool. "The _Imminent Death_ just pulled into orbit. Shuttle is on the way."

Grunting, I turned away from the General, fully prepared to ignore him and move on. But the stupid son of a bitch just couldn't keep his mouth shut. "Perhaps your friends are involved as well."

Scales let out a quiet oath when I abruptly stopped moving, turning my head to the right to glare at him over my shoulder. "What."

"Where you are involved, they are as well." He replied evenly. "Perhaps I will order my soldiers to detain them for... questioning."

My glare sharpened. I was told I had a pretty good one, and Mascal evidently agreed because he actually took a slight step back. "If me, or my friends, were involved... you would be dead. Not annoyed."

Mascal narrowed his yellow eyes at me. "Threats now."

"No." I stated quietly, my voice flat. "Facts. Now, are you going to call T'Ravt back here to get her opinion, or should I?"

The man's clawed hands twitched visibly. He was more than intelligent enough to do the math. I had allies, just as he did. As much as he was furious with me, for something I didn't even... do...

Wait. He would _know_ that I wasn't the one responsible for petty annoyances like this. He hadn't contradicted me when I'd pointed that out, and he wasn't stupid. He'd have already fucked up if he was.

So why would he be pushing this? It had to be something beyond simple irritation for him to crack like this publicly. He was worried about something... worried that I knew something maybe? No, he knew I didn't have anything on him or else he would have already been executed by T'Ravt. He was worried about what I could find out in the future, when I wasn't on Redcliffe. What Krom might reveal when I finally caught up with him.

That's why he was tripping over himself, trying to find a reason to keep me here, where he still had authority.

"What kind of deal did you make with Krom, that you're so worried?" I asked him, keeping my voice low.

The only tell was a tiny twitch to his mandibles that I might have just imagined. "Again with that fiction. Your obsession is unseemly, mercenary."

I grunted and shook my head a little as the rigid control returned to his voice. Mentioning Krom had been a mistake, it had snapped him out of whatever mental state he'd been in. Made him realize that he was pushing things too far. "You know what's sad about all of this? I actually rather liked you when we first met. Didn't trust you, but you seemed solid enough."

Mascal didn't respond, simply staring at me inscrutably.

Exhaling, I took a step back closer to him and lowered my voice again. "Threaten my companions again, and I will kill you."

The words made him sneer as he stepped closer to me as well, all but towering over me. "Would you, right here? In front of all of these witnesses? Even though the Warlord herself forbade you?"

My hand shifted to my gun. "Yes. If you or your people so much as look in our direction, you won't live to regret it."

"I see the loss of your priest and that tourist-trap native is affecting you." He replied, clearly not feeling threatened. "How much more difficult is it going to make your hunt without them?"

Fingers twitched, closing around the weapon even as I felt Trena wrap strong arms around my wrist in warning.

If anything, that only seemed to amuse Mascal. "Obey the clanless, mercenary. You can't touch me anymore than I can touch you. Now if you will excuse me, I have juvenile saboteurs to find. But rest assured, you will be hearing from me again."

A muscle spasmed in my cheek as he turned his back, striding confidently back to his aircar and climbing into the back seat. He barked at his driver to hurry things up before closing the obviously armored door.

Exhaling, I forced my hand to relax, turning to glance at the Quarian driver as he shut the front door. His omni-tool snapped to life, and I heard locks click into place.

"There." He spoke as he moved around the vehicle, making a show of opening the service door over the eezo core. "So Kean, what do we do with him?"

I frowned at him, then snorted as his voice finally clicked. "Naka. How the fuck did you pull the switch off?"

"Most people can't tell Quarians apart, especially conceited assholes." He replied evenly, glowing eyes curling a bit behind his mask. "His usual driver is banging two Asari we found for him right now, repainted my suit to match his."

Trena cautiously let go of me, shaking her head as she sighed. "Is the coolant line actually fucked?"

"Of course not. Just needed an excuse to leave him stuck here." The veteran shuttle pilot replied, shaking his head. " We were hoping to make him twitchy enough he'd fuck up and admit something publicly."

I grunted. It wasn't that bad of an idea really, people could say all kinds of stupid shit if you stressed them out, or simply annoyed them enough. Especially someone as used to being in control as Mascal probably was. "But he didn't."

"He didn't." The Quarian shook his head slightly before his head cocked, a hand rising to the side of his mask in the universal gesture to indicate he was listening to something. "He's ordering any Silver Blades outside of this zone to be detained and interrogated, suspicion of sabotage."

Scales let out a hissing sound. "Idas and the Little Bitch are delivering that prisoner."

Naka held up a hand. "He's talking to vacuum, I turned the car's jammer on."

The proof of that statement came when something knocked on the car's door from the inside. And then the vehicle rocked slightly as if someone had just thrown their shoulder into the window trying to get it open.

"You record the transmission he tried to send?" I asked, not quite staring at the vehicle.

The pilot's omni-tool spun open again, and a moment later Mascal's low, furious tones were being played from the speaker. " _Dispatch flash orders. I want any member of the Silver Blades mercenary unit outside of the expeditionary force's compound to be arrested at once. They are most likely behind the acts of sabotage throughout the city. I don't care what condition you bring them in, just so long as they're breathing enough to question. Confirm order. Confirm. Dispatch? Lieutenant, respond!"_

My lips peeled back as I glanced at Trena. "You still going to stop me?"

"From killing him?" She shook her head, glaring at the vehicle. "I might hate the little bitch but she's one of us, so is Idas. How are we going to do this?

"Well," I mock-considered. "I was just going to open the door and shoot him. But if you want I could count to three and _then_ I could open the door and shoot him."

Naka snorted, and Trena rolled her eyes. "Fucking be serious ape. So we kill him, T'Ravt is going to turn into a fucking hurricane and drown us all."

Oh right, T'Ravt. Her reaction was something I had to think about, I supposed. "So we make it look like someone else did it. Krom maybe."

She glanced at me. "Krom?"

I waved a hand at the ostentatious vehicle. "Must have gotten this from Zaen's palace, who fucking knows what Krom might have done to them before he left. As far as we saw, the asshole got into his car and it lifted on its own and flew off, dripping coolant the whole time."

"You think she'll believe that shit ape?" An arm waved. "Especially with all the fucking witnesses."

"I find myself not really caring." I admitted quietly. "The fucker was responsible for all the crap we went through, for Callada, for Thul, and now he's threatening us to protect his fucking ass. We leave him alive he might even send people after us, or keep working with Krom."

"Not arguing with you Cie." She offered, holding a hand up, "Just making sure you understand shit. She won't be happy with us."

I shrugged simply, not feeling like repeating myself. It was probably a bad sign, I distinctly knew that I _should_ care about having a Warlord pissed off at me... but the usual paranoia and fear was entirely absent. Definitely a bad sign, but again... I found myself not really caring. Self-inspection could come when I was home. "Scales, do me a favor and call Voya, tell her to get her ass back here. Naka, pass the VI controls to my omni-tool?"

His eyes narrowed in pleasure as he did so, stepping away from the aircar to watch as I started programming the auto-pilot. I still wasn't much of a coder, but I'd had plenty of experience turning aircars into flying bombs and knew my way around manipulating the typical VI setup. The sentries, realizing something was up, quietly ditched their posts to wander over and glance at what we were doing. Muttered laughter and barks of approval came, along with pats on the back from Turians and deep head bows from Batarians.

Trena, finishing her own short call, checked the course I'd lain in and snorted before reminding me to disable most of the safety features.

Once everything was set, we checked it over before I nodded and pushed the activation button. Mascal had been pounding on the doors, trying to get out of his own car. From the muted flash I saw as the engines whined to life, he even tried to shoot the window out only to be frustrated by the armored inlays.

"How long does he have until he hits the water?" Trena asked as the luxury vehicle rose, spinning to face the distant ocean before beginning to accelerate out of sight.

"Thirty seven minutes." I replied casually. "One for every thousand people who died in the siege."

"Fucking poetic." She murmured. "Shit. Ghai isn't going to be happy with us."

"Because we just assassinated someone?"

"Yeah." Her head shook slightly before exhaling. "Come on then. You're still fucking out of it if you're not worried about T'Ravt, but I'm not. Let's get our asses onto the Eclipse shuttle before she finds out."

Grunting, I turned to follow her, not really listening to Naka or the others as they applauded what we'd just done. They all approved right now, but T'Ravt would probably get one of them to talk. Or one of them hadn't been paying attention to the false story I'd thrown together. Or, most likely, she'd see right through it.

But I didn't really care. She could try to kill me or whatever later, probably whenever we left the aegis of Sederis' protection.

But that was for later. Now... Now it was finally time to go home.

* * *

_**Next up is Epilogue I: Homecoming** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter underwent several slightly different iterations... This is the third version of the conversation with T'Ravt, and the fourth confrontation with Mascal, and much of the smaller details were rewritten multiple times. I'm not one hundred percent happy with the end result but then again I rarely am so I just have to hope that it works for you the readers.
> 
> In regards to the content... the campaign on Redcliffe is over, not exactly on the highest of notes for everyone. We're going to have the usual epilogue arc of shorter chapters next. They will largely focus on the mental health, or lack thereof, of the team as they return to Illium. Plus the backlog of communications and other.. problems that the campaign has left them.
> 
> And, you know... Ghai.
> 
> Tentative plans for Einherjar are now set, along with a new outline. The current concept is for five 'Sagas' to compromise the main story. Consider them to be massively expanded operations from this fic. Each will heavily focus on a specific event and will take place in fairly short time-frames, and will last somewhere between six to twelve chapters depending on the events in question.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	44. Epilogue I: Homecoming

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

**Epilogue I: Homecoming**

_Date: 01-26-2184_

_Location: Nos Astra, Illium_

* * *

The two week trip from Redcliffe to Illium passed largely in a drunken blur. Ayle was largely the only one to stay sober, having been spared direct involvement thanks to her continuing adjustment to her prosthetics. She made sure that I went through my inbox before the daily trip to the ship's lounge, replying to at least some of the massive backlog.

Most of it was from Sederis and Nynsi, and I was able to give them short replies that we'd meet with them once we were home and secure. Others had been routine communications from people I occasionally conversed with. Chen asking if I had time to upgrade his new sniper rifle, Captain Elissa Themes wondering if I could vouch for her to the freed slave colony growing in Omega's depths, Red offering payment if I could tell her the _actual_ state of the war rather than the filtered news Aria was allowing on station. Them and a dozen or so others in the same vein, most of them followed up by inquiries asking if I was still alive, if anyone was monitoring my mail for me.

Replying to those was simple enough. And usually turned out to be pleasantly distracting in its own way, keeping my mind occupied until it was time to drink.

But some of it was from people I'd have rather _not_ heard from. T'Ravt had attempted to call me nearly a dozen times after our shuttle had left the planet, eventually settling for an ominous message summoning me to either her flagship or her palace on Xentha for a 'conference' whenever I was available.

The lack of an obvious death threat was at least mildly cheering, though Ayle remained pessimistic that we'd be allowed to keep the compound we'd just received. She'd only relaxed when I pointed out that any punishment would likely focus on Trena and I rather than on the unit as a whole.

Unwelcome but expected message barrage number two had come from Shepard. To say that she wasn't happy about me going off the grid was understating things, but I couldn't really bring myself to care all that much. I'd sent her a terse message indicating that it had been to circumstances beyond my control, and that I'd resume giving her information as per our prior arrangement. She'd sent an equally short message back, indicating that she'd expect prompt responses. There'd also been a few questions about what I'd been up to that I'd decided to ignore.

After each day's messages were resolved, it became time to hit the ship's lounge for drinks, occasionally followed by... other recreational activities.

"I still can't believe you slept with Chang." Voya snickered over our private comms as our shuttle dove through Illium's atmosphere. "Twice."

"We were drunk." I reminded her with a mutter. "Very, very, _very_ drunk. And I thought we agreed not to talk about it."

"The two of you agreed not to talk about it." She countered. "I made no such arrangement."

I rolled my eyes inside my helmet. We probably didn't need to be in full armor, considering we were landing in Sederis' mansion, but we'd habitually worn it all even on the ship. Habits. "Yes, yes you did. Stop doing the selective memory thing."

"I have no idea what you're talking about. In either case." Voya paused almost thoughtfully. "When do you think the big idiot will work out _why_ you and Chang have been avoiding each other for the last week."

My face pulled into a slight grimace as I glanced over to where the reporter was sitting on the far side of the shuttle. Both mornings after had been a little awkward and not helped by our hangovers, especially the first one.

" _Pulling into final approach."_ Our pilot's voice emerged from the speakers above us, drawing pleased sounds from all but three people. Since two of them were unconscious, I focused on the one who was awake.

Trena, seated on my left, was clutching her harness hard enough I thought she might tear the straps. Ending the private call with Voya, I rose my voice enough foer her to hear me. "Scales, you need to relax."

"Relax." She muttered. "Ape, I'm about to die. How the fuck am I supposed to relax?"

I snorted. "Stop being so bloody dramatic, she won't kill you."

"She's going to rip my fucking arm off and beat me to death with it." Scales predicted glumly.

"Ghai's not going to beat you to death with your own arm." I mock-assured her before pausing, then adding. "She'll probably tear a limb or two off though."

There was a quiet, keening sound, probably as she imagined her bondmate actually doing so.

"Boss," Illyan rumbled with a quiet sigh. "Stop torturing her."

"She deserves it." I countered. "For that crap she put into my drinks last week."

The big Asari seemed to consider that before nodding. "Fair point boss. Carry on."

"I fucking hate you both." Trena all but growled, her hands remaining clenched tightly.

The pilot stopped me from continuing to harass my friend, her voice amused as the shuttle's engines shifted in pitch. " _Eclipse Headquarters, Nos Astra Illium. Remember to keep the bloodshed to a minimum while indoors."_

Snorting, I cast off my harness and rose. Stretching a bit as I shuffled over the door, I tapped the button to let it slide open.

My first view of home wasn't terribly impressive, consisting of just the interior of of a hanger. Thankfully there wasn't a figure in golden armor present, or the flimsy robes that were the only other clothes I'd seen Sederis wear. Less thankfully, there was a single Asari pacing slowly beneath us, her prosthetic hand standing out from her dark shirt and pants.

"Hey scales?" I called back. "She's waiting for you."

A quiet oath was her response to that, and then she was rising as well. She took her time walking over, looking like she had weights on her legs, before stopping on my left. "She... looks pissed ape."

"Yeah." I agreed quietly, the teasing mirth fading. "She's your bondmate, you go first."

"You're out of your fucking mind if you think I'm going out there alone ape."

I sighed, then turned and glanced up and to my left as someone else joined us at the door. Illyan seemed to roll her eyes but nodded. In unison we reached out, grabbed scales by her shoulders, and all but threw her from the vehicle before she could try and dig her heels in.

Trena hit the ground, fell into a roll, and came up in a stagger. She was turning back, clearly ready to yell at us, when Ghai's right hand slammed into her helmet and drove her back to the ground.

I couldn't help but flinch a little as Ayle moved up to stand where Trena had just been. "And... who is that?"

"Ghai. Her bondmate." I replied, wincing as Ghai grabbed her shorter lover's helmet, deftly ripped it off, and then decked her again.

"That certainly explains the hostility." The other Reyja'krem murmured. "Let us leave her to it then. Mirala and Shyeel need to be moved to the medical wing, and you have meetings you must attend."

"Washana can direct you to the medical quarters." I shook my head slightly. "The rest can wait. I have to apologize to Ghai first."

Ayle turned her chest I my direction so as not to turn her head to the right. She regarded me neutrally for several breaths, then nodded slightly. We'd already had a few of our own meetings on the way here, when we hadn't been catching up on mail. Between us we'd come up with a few ideas of how to handle losing those who we'd lost, and how the experiences of Redcliffe would affect us moving forwards.

Professionally, that is. Personally... personally I'd gone back to the old standby of simply refusing to dwell on any of it, locking the memories away.

Stepping aside, I watched as everyone else got out of the shuttle, giving the two Asari a wide berth as Ghai continued her one-sided pummeling. Even as I observed she grabbed Trena by her crest, hauled her shorter lover up to her knees, and then threw a jab into her right cheek that sent her right back down.

Ayle exited first, closely followed by Washana and Dietrich who were carefully carrying Mirala on a stretcher between them, Idas moving along side and making sure that the various medical items shoved into the sleeping demon stayed in place. Faras's limping form followed them, while Amy and Voya helped a barely conscious Shyeel shuffle down the ramp.

"I'll stay with you boss." Illyan murmured once the others had gone, staying beside me. "Might need someone to carry you both once she's done."

I grimaced but couldn't really refute that statement. It didn't take everyone else long to clear the area, and only once they were gone did I carefully move down and into the garage proper.

Ghai's eyes narrowed as she caught sight of us moving. Holding up her prosthetic hand, she shut up Trena's latest apology and silently stepped around her and stalked towards us.

"Ghai." I greeted quietly.

"Helmet." She replied.

A muscle in my cheek twitch, but I nodded. Bracing myself a bit, I reached up and took the protective gear off. It had barely cleared my forehead before a blue hand snapped up to smack me across the face. I jerked back and hissed in pain, but didn't try to put my hands up. "Sorry."

"Asshole." She growled, her ruined voice further roughened by anger. "Kept her."

I winced and glanced away, my mind falling back into the familiar Ghai-to-standard translations. She hadn't actually thought I'd let Trena come with then. I tried to open my mouth to say something, only for her metal hand to strike me across the other side of my head. That hurt a lot more than her flesh and blood one had, and Illyan had to hold me up as I staggered.

"Hey, not his chest." The large Asari quickly got an armored limb between said area and Ghai's next punch. "He's hurt there."

The former commando glowered at her, jerked her head into a nod, and then stepped closer to me. I expected another slap, or a punch, and closed my eyes to wait for it. Instead I got arms wrapping around me as the Asari yanked me away from Illyan and into a surprisingly gentle hug.

"Idiot." She murmured quietly. "But you brought her home."

I bowed my head over her shoulder. "We're lucky to be here. It was... was..."

Xerol Shaaryak's Harath'krem turned her head a bit, leaning up to press her mouth against my neck gently before pulling back. "Know."

"Ethy?" I asked after a few moments.

"Erana." She replied, letting go of me and stepping back. "Come."

We followed her out, stopping only to help Trena get back up after Ghai gave her another hit over the head as she went past. Hauling her dazed body to move, we made it out into the hallway before almost running into the young maiden in question.

Dressed in the same black, casual clothes, she was carefully holding a tiny blue form in her arms. Ethanya's little face seemed to blink rapidly as her holder turned her so that she could see both of her parents approaching. The infant let out a pleased squeal at the sight of her mother, and then a louder one when Ghai grabbed Trena and brought her in front of their daughter.

I smiled a little as Trena took Ethy from Erana, holding her in armored hands as if she was made of glass. She murmured something to her daughter, then she and Ghai turned down the hall and started walking without a glance back at us.

My view was obstructed almost at once by a flying figure that all but tackled me. Erana wasn't as huge as her sister, but she was still very tall for an Asari and I could rest my chin on her shoulder as she hugged me. For her part, her face was pressed against the side of mine as she babbled words too quickly for me to understand them, her arms thrown up around me as she held on.

"Sis!" Illyan stepped forwards, gently loosening the grip around my chest. "Easy, let the boss breathe."

"I'm sorry sir!" She quickly stepped back from me, then let out a yelp as her sister hauled her around me and into a titanic hug. Whatever words she was trying to say came out as little more than a wheeze as she was pressed against Illyan's armor.

"Easy." I advised quietly, reaching up to tap the larger Asari on the shoulder. "Illyan."

"Sorry." Too many emotions were wrapped in her voice, and while she lessened her death-grip a bit she didn't let go of her sister.

Exhaling, I opened my mouth to suggest that we all head to Erana's room for some privacy, then closed it as I saw another figure in the hallway. Pursing my lpis for a moment, I forced out another breath and shifted my words a bit."Erana, you should take her to your room. Let her lay down. Stay with her a bit."

The maiden blinked several times. "What about you sir?"

My left shoulder rolled as I nodded to the Asari leaning casually against the wall in the distance. "Meetings. I'll come visit as soon as I'm done, all right?"

She glanced to where I'd indicated, and frowned in a much darker expression than I used to seeing on her face. But in the end she simply nodded and quietly murmured something to her big sister, the pair of them remaining close as they departed.

I watched them go, turning back to find Sederis calmly walking in my direction, golden robes open and not covering much of her lean body. "Human. You look like shit."

"Sederis." I replied politely. "You look... cold."

She snorted, placing her hands on her hips. The motion revealed more blue skin, which I studiously ignored. "Nice of you to notice. Heard you murdered Mascal."

One of my shoulder's twitched. "I was going to let him live until he tried to arrest us for shit we didn't even do."

"Idiot." Another snort accompanied the word. "Walk with me."

I didn't want to. I wanted to go after Illyan and Erana and see how comfortable the latter's couch was, or else track down the bar I'd visited the last time I'd been here. But Sederis was my host, and beyond that, she was... well, Sederis. If Mascal had been one of hers instead of one of T'Ravt's, I don't think I'd have had the quad to do what I'd done.

Easily matching her shorter strides with my longer legs, I followed her down the hall and into one of the grander corridors in the place.

"You get the recap I sent?" I asked after giving her more than enough time to open the conversation.

"Yes." She rolled a shoulder in a shrug, dipping her head ever so slightly. "Though I hardly needed to. Your appearance, and the fact that you smell like a distillery, would have told me how the campaign went on its own."

"Yeah..." Reaching up, I ran a hand through my matted hair. "How's the rest of the war going? Didn't really get a chance to review on the way home."

"About as you might have expected." The Warlord replied evenly. "Ganar's counter-attack was blunted, but fighting continues in the northern section of the Terminus. In the long-term the loss of Zaen and Redcliffe will cripple his ability to maintain cohesive campaigns and to supply his troops, but in the short-term he remains a deadly and competant adversary."

"Especially with Krom free to cause chaos."

Blue lips twisted a little. "Yes. You will continue the hunt."

It was more of a statement than a question, but I nodded all the same. "Yes, but there's going to be some changes. Ayle and I are still working on the details."

"I would advise being sober while doing so." Sederis stated shortly.

I grimaced. "That an order?"

"You're no good to me if you become alcoholic." Her eyes flicked to me. "Captain Hashen informed me of how much you and yours consumed aboard her ship."

Another grimace followed that. "Helped us sleep."

The Warlord was silent for several steps, then she spoke again, her voice quiet and almost something gentle. "I know. But it only helps for a while, then it becomes dependency. Better to stop now."

I glanced at her, but her expression was one of studious neutrality. "All right. What do you need from me right now?"

"A more in depth analysis and recap of the entire campaign, but I can get that from Massa or that reporter you dragged with." Sederis's voice quickly returned to it's normal dangerous purr. "From you I will require the details of your new operational plan as soon as it is set."

"Might be a while." I admitted quietly. "We're kind of... broken, right now."

She shrugged again. "Your team may remain within my mansion for a month without cost, in recognition of your contributions in the earlier phases of the war. After those thirty days I will expect compensation of one form or another."

"More than fair." Our pace slowed as we approached an intersection. "If you don't mind?"

A blue hand rose, instructing me to wait a moment. "If you still do not trust Gears' bondmate, my own mind healer will be made available to you."

"I don't think that will be required, but thank you." I replied politely.

"As you wish." The same limb shifted, waving me away. "I expect you and Gears to meet with me in three days, T'Ravt is expected to have her official response to Mascal's death made public by then. Depending upon what it is, we will have to discuss your response."

Bowing my head politely, I backed away, not quite turning my back on her for several meters. Teeth flashed in an approving fashion at my paranoia, her own head shifting in a tiny nod just as I finally turned away.

Sobriety then. I could handle that. After all, it wasn't like she told me I couldn't drink. One Illium Moonrise would probably be fine.

As I mulled on that, I remembered the last couple of weeks. Or rather, remembered the long, blacked-out blur that occupied more than half of the trip. At how many times I'd intended to have just one drink that afternoon or night, and ended up beyond drunk. And in Amy Chang's bed twice. And Ayle's, though only once.

So no drinking then... well shit. This was going to be a long couple of days.

Shaking myself, I tried not to think about how the fuck I was going to sleep without alcohol, and instead focused on heading back towards where I thought Erana's room was.

* * *

_**Next up is Epilogue II: Divide and Conquer** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not much to say here. Quick recap of the trip home, and the landing at Sederis' mansion. Next chapter will cover how Ayle and Cie are going to manage the blades moving forwards, T'Ravt's public and private reactions to Mascal's death, and Cie and Ghai spending some time together.
> 
> For more teasing information on Einherjar. The prologue will be in the same vein as Vengeance's, acting as the very next scene chronologically. After that, the first Saga will take place entirely on Xentha. It will see the return of one old enemy, a pair of uneasy alliances, and someone that Cie isn't allowed to kill. :)
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	45. Epilogue II: Divide and Conquer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And now we've got the basic plan for how the Silver Blades are going to be reformed in the very near future. Also Cie resolves his short-term fling with the reporter before she makes her own departure. Next chapter will start with him and Ghai trying to work through things, and then meeting with someone who he'd rather not.
> 
> Next chapter is a little over half done, if we can get twelve reviews in one day I'll post it first thing tomorrow morning. :)
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

**Epilogue II: Divide and Conquer**

_Date: 02-03-2184_

_Location: Nos Astra, Illium_

* * *

"Cieran." Ayle's voice broke me from the almost meditative state I'd achieved, the tides of my brain only slowly retreating from the focus on my work. "Still not sleeping I see."

"Ayle." I replied as I set my carbine down. "I got a few hours."

The Batarian woman grabbed a nearby chair with her metal arm, dragging it over to my workbench so that she could sit beside mine. "Define a few."

"At least five." I twitched my left shoulder. "Ghai says any progress is good progress."

That drew a small grunt from her. "And how are those sessions going?"

"They're going." Another tiny shrug accompanied the words. My... sessions with Ghai were something I didn't intend to talk about with Ayle. Or anyone else really. The first one had seen me all but break down in another attack as I recounted the crap that had happened on Redcliffe. She'd ending up holding me for nearly an hour as I tried to gather myself.

After that, it had mostly been me talking about what had happened on Redcliffe, while Ghai simply sat nearby and listened. Once and a while she'd ask me about Rane, Thul, or Callada, mostly little things that would require me to focus on my memories. It was apparently some kind of Asari process, to help keep those thoughts easily accessible in preparation for a healing meld.

"She's going to try and meld with me in a few weeks." I added offhandedly, starting to put my tools away.

Ayle sucked in a slow breath between her teeth. "Isn't that dangerous?"

"Yes." I replied bluntly. "But it has been four years since the Matriarch did whatever the fuck she did to me. We're right at the line where I _should_ be able to without dying, providing that I don't resist the mental contact, and provided that Ghai is very, very slow and careful about it."

Four dark eyes regarded me seriously before she shook her head slightly. "I can't stop you, but I will state that if you end up dead I will be extremely annoyed with you."

My lips twitched a little. "Don't want to put the unit back together on your own?"

"No." She snorted. "Not that you will be helping much in that process regardless."

"Fair point." I agreed, leaning back in my chair and drumming one set of fingers on the workbench. "You finished getting everyone's answers then?"

My fellow Reyja'krem nodded, pulling a small tablet from her pocket and laying it out in front of us. "Given that T'Ravt declared that it was Krom who killed Mascal, I believe it will be safe for us to move to the compound she provided to us on Xentha to begin reforming the unit."

I grunted quietly. She'd started getting pinged with applications requests shortly after we'd wrapped up on Redcliffe, mostly from members of the capital expedition who apparently intended to quit the Warlord's army. A few were from 'local citizens' seeking to escape the chaotic regimen change, but it didn't take a genius to work out that they were former militia hoping to evade being imprisoned or executed.

Five or six others had come from other planets as extranet rumors about what had gone down during the fighting began to spread. Ayle thought that once Nynsi's publicist got rolling, and once Amy got her own stories out, that we might be deluged with people wanting to join up. In light of all of that, we'd held a quick conference with everyone the week before, and laid out what she and I wanted to do.

The experiences of Redcliffe, and the mess on Kirkwall, had convinced us that our operational plan needed a heavy dose of change. To that end... we'd gone with the Blue Suns model. Not exactly the best precursors, but their organizational format was nearly ideal for what we needed. Ayle and I had brought in Nynsi, and after an afternoon of negotiations had managed to win her over to the concept.

My old Tarath'shan would become our only supplier of arms and equipment, in exchange she would become the junior member of our leadership troika. She would also commit her personal security forces to join the Silver Blades, though they would be left on 'security detail' to protect her and her factories in Khar'shan Minor. Construction of a new barracks complex and recruiting stations would begin near the city's small spaceport, with Nynsi in charge of bringing in Asari in order to increase the number of biotics we would have.

Meanwhile, Ayle, and those who joined her, would move into the new compound on Xentha and begin their own work there. She, acting as the senior authority, would command our 'line' unit once enough recruits were brought in. Operating as honest mercenaries, they'd be hired out to anyone who could afford our rates. Out of deference to me, no slaving contracts or other 'ill-repute' missions would be accepted, and Ayle had indicated that she intended to heavily enforce the Pillars' wisdom on anyone who joined.

Which just left me. I'd be taking any volunteers from the old guard and continuing the hunt from Krom, but this time as an independent commando team. No contracts, no having to bow to anyone else's whims, no being dragged into side crap. There would only be the pursuit. If leads dried up or he went to ground, we'd help out Ayle's unit where we could, but I'd made it very clear that any such assistance would be secondary to our primary goal.

Once we'd explained it all, we'd told everyone to fuck off and take a week's vacation, and to give us their answers when they got back.

"Mirala will come with us to Xentha, and has agreed to help train any biotics during her recovery process." Ayle reached down onto the screen. There were three columns, with her name on the left, mine on the right, and everyone else's in the middle. Even as I watched she pulled Mirala's under her own. "She's not officially joining but she admits that she owes us, and I've agreed to pay her."

"And she's not in any shape to swim alone right now."

"That as well." She dipped her head before her dark lips curled a little. A finger negligently flicked Voya's name to my side. "I didn't bother asking."

"I did." I exhaled tiredly. "She hit me. Repeatedly."

Something like laughter colored her voice as she moved on, adding two more names to her side. "Idas and Faras have agreed to come with me, provided I do not involve them in open combat for a few months. Considering it will likely take that long to organize the new recruits into something like a proper mercenary unit, I believe I can keep them content."

Nodding, I glanced at the next name on the list. "Shyeel?"

"With you." The Asari's name joined Voya's beneath mine.

That made me blink slightly in surprise. "Huh. Figured she might want something a little more slow paced after her injuries."

Ayle shrugged. "She was as close to Thul as you were, and to be entirely honest I don't believe she's terribly fond of me."

My lips twitched a little but I nodded again. "All right. Dietrich?"

The other human male's name slid beneath hers with a drag of her finger. "He'll be place in command of our power armor detachment. Your former Tarath'shan has promised us twelve units to begin with. One of those can be yours."

"No... well..." I hedged before sighing. "No. Keep it, I can always get another from Nynsi if I really need one."

"You're sure?"

"Yeah. We'll probably need to move around at speed, and shipping one of those is a pain."

"All right." She tapped the next pair of names on the list. "Washana is returning to her unit with the Eclipse, as expected. After her is Illyan T'Donna. I offered her a non-combat position, running the engineering and mechanics section, but she refused. She wants to go with you."

I considered that for a long moment and then sighed. "I'll talk with her about it."

"Then I would advise speaking to T'Laria as well." More amusement rumbled as she slid that name across as well.

Glowering, I promptly reached out and deleted it entirely. "She's staying here. I don't need Ghai tracking us to Xentha and then trying to murder me."

Ayle blinked her lower eyes, a smile still present. "True. They could always move to our compound, it will be more than secure enough."

"Not at first." I replied, shaking my head. "Maybe once you've got a steady garrison to go with the deployed units, and trust them enough. Aethyta still might want Trena dead, assuming that old fish is still alive. And there's still more than a few True Sons and old Blue Suns who might know about their involvement in the shit that went down."

"True." She dipped her head in polite acceptance. "I will try to speak with Ghai T'Laria about it then. A mind healer would be useful to have, and Trena may be uncouth but she is an able fighter. Perhaps when Mirala elects to depart things will be secure enough that they could relocate."

I grunted. "You don't think Mirala will stick around?"

"She doesn't seem the type to stay in one place for long." There was a small shrug of her right shoulder. "We'll have her for a few months, then she'll make her excuses and depart. Call it intuition."

"Well, if she seems like she's about to leave let me know." I offered. "I might be able to talk with her."

From the glance I received Ayle didn't think that would help, but she shifted her head to show polite thanks all the same. "That leaves Amy Chang. She wants to talk with you privately about her own plans."

"She's probably leaving then." I murmured.

That drew a shrug. "Likely. She has more than enough material to write stories for the next year or more, and we could always contact her remotely if she desires more."

"Yeah." A slow breath whistled between my teeth. "You think she's awake? Might as well get it done with now so we can tell everyone their marching orders and coordinate with Sederis."

"She likely is. Are we still in agreement about the departure itself?"

"Unless something comes up when you get there." I rose tiredly from my chair, wishing my cane hadn't gotten trashed when my power armor had landed on it back on Redcliffe. Making a new one was on my to-do list, but it was lower on said list than other priority tasks. "Expect us a couple of weeks after your arrival, want to make sure all of our gear is repaired and upgraded before we go."

Well, that was the official excuse anyway, and it was crap that needed to get done. But in reality it was mostly so that I had more time to talk with Ghai, to let her do whatever she needed to do to help me actually sleep at night and to help prevent any future panic-attacks.

My friend nodded slightly, knowing and accepting the excuse for what it was. "I'll round up everyone else, meet us in the eastern ballroom in two hours?"

"Will do." Exchanging quick but polite head-bows, I left the small machine shop I'd spent far too much time in over the week or so and headed towards Amy Chang's room. I had to go up three levels and walk for nearly six minutes past far too many ostentatious displays of wealth. I mean, Athame's fucking ass, _one_ hallway probably had enough golden crap in it that Sederis could buy herself a cruiser if she decided to sell it.

Reaching the guest room door, set into a small alcove like the rest of them, I brought a hand up and knocked quietly. "Amy? It's Cie."

It took her a few breaths, but the door slid open a crack to show a brown eye glancing up at me, the rest of her body hidden behind the door. "Cie. Just you?"

"Yup."

She seemed to nod, then vanished as the door opened enough to let me in. Both of my eyebrows rose as I stepped inside, finding her in plain athletic shorts and a cut-off tank top. Nothing risque by this mansion's standards, or even by Hintertown's.

"You all right?" I asked, moving aside as she closed the door.

"Fine, just..." Her lips twisted a little as she put her hands on her hips. "Tired of getting hit on by the staff. God but I forgot how annoying Asari can be when they're in packs."

I snorted. "You get used to just tuning it out."

"I... don't think I'll be around long enough to get used to it." Amy offered before turning away to pace over to her console. "I'm guessing Ayle sent you?"

"Yeah." I followed her, but stayed a polite distance away as she sat down. "We figured you're not coming with to Xentha, but you're making it sound like you won't be staying here either. Where you going to go?"

"The Citadel." A slim hand waved at the screen on her desk. "I've already bought the tickets, leaving tomorrow."

I blinked a bit in surprise. "Why the Citadel?"

"I... want to put a documentary together." She admitted, not quite meeting my eyes. "On the war on Redcliffe, to go with the stories I'm going to write about you all in general. I mean... my god, no one in the Alliance seems to even realize that the war is an actual _war_. Thousands of people are dying every day and they don't even know about it."

A few more blinks occurred as my posture shifted to show surprise and bemusement. "And you think you could find someone to sponsor you?"

"Emily Wong. She's been fighting to get news out about the war, to the point where she was fired. I reached out to her, to see if she can help. She said she still has contacts, enough to at least start working while we use the articles to drum up interest."

I frowned at her as she spoke. I wasn't very good at reading human women, or my fellow humans at all really, but I didn't have to be any good at it to realize that she wasn't being entirely open with me.

And how the fuck did a young reporter from Redcliffe know Emily Wong of all people? "What aren't you telling me, Amy?"

She grimaced and glanced further away. "Nothing you need to know."

My arms crossed slightly as I thought about that for a few breaths. "Not going to get you or us in trouble?"

"Not the lethal kind." A hand rose, two fingers held up. "Promise."

"All right." I grunted, letting it slide. She'd earned more than a little trust... and I'd slept with her, which was probably coloring my judgment more than a little bit. "You know we've got that arrangement with Nynsi Shaaryak about putting out articles and stuff right?"

It was her turn to blink a few times, she probably hadn't expected me to let whatever it was go so easily. "Yes... yes, but that's only for Terminus news sources. This would broadcast from the Citadel."

Which would probably thrill Ayle to no end. She adored the publicity and that crap that went with it, where I mostly found it to be annoying. "What kind of documentary you going to do? You recorded enough for something like that?"

"I've got more material than I'll be able to use." She admitted. "I tired to avoid recording you all though, I didn't know if you'd approve or not."

I waved a hand. "Go for it."

"Sure?"

"Sure." I shrugged a little. "Even if I said no Ayle and Nynsi would just overrule me."

"What? Why... oh, the reorganization thing you're doing." Amy shook her head, her long hair swaying back and forth. "Are you sure that's a good idea? Becoming a full PMC I mean?"

"Not entirely." I admitted. "But it should help keep the SIU off of us, they aren't going to give up just because that disguised team on Redcliffe got killed. And since Nynsi's been supporting the traditionalist riots on Khar'shan, she's not exactly popular with them either."

"I meant longer term." Her eyes went a bit distant. "The Blue Suns started out as an honest unit, but... that kind of thing doesn't usually last."

I let out a slow breath between my teeth. "No. No it doesn't. Nynsi and Ayle are good people, they'll stick with honest work. And if the group becomes something else when they eventually get bored and step away... well, guess I'd have to take care of that directly."

She met my gaze, then quickly flicked her eyes away as her olive skin seemed to color a bit. "Always the direct solutions with you, regardless of the situation."

"It saves time." I pointed out, then frowned at her. "Wait, I thought you said you didn't remember either time."

Her blush worsened a little. "I might have lied."

My arms crossed my chest as I stared bemusedly down at her. "That is incredibly unfair, considering that I only remember drunken blurs."

Eyebrows rose as her hands shifted back to her hips, though the effect was ruined somewhat by the fact that she was still sitting. "Cieran Kean. Are you trying to get me to sleep with you before I leave, just so that you can remember doing so?"

"I don't know." I replied innocently, my body shifting automatically to show my interest in the Batarian fashion. "Do you want me to try?"

She snorted a little, but was grinning as she spoke. "That was horrible."

"I know." I admitted with a small smile of my own. "I'm used to flirting with Batarian women. Much easier."

"That's because Batarian women _don't_ flirt, they skip straight to the part where they pose themselves in a way that either says have-sex-with-me or get-away-before-I-kill-you." Amy pointed out.

"Like I said," I shrugged a little, "Much easier."

Another little snort. "Sorry Cie, but I usually prefer other women, or Asari. I'm not even sure what you might have said to get me into bed with you to begin with."

I let out an overly dramatic sigh. "So unfair."

"I'm sure that you'll live." She assured me, a broad grin on her features. "Now I need to cut my hair if I'm going to the Citadel, and it would be better if someone else did it. If you do a good enough job I might give you a goodbye kiss."

Tilting my head, I leaned it a bit to my left as if she was a highborn commanding me. "Challenge accepted, Lady Chang."

Cutting her hair was very different from trimming Voya's, but I didn't butcher it overmuch. And even though it didn't progress farther than a quick kiss, I still considered it a win for my morale in the end.

* * *

_**Next up is Epilogue III: Mind Games** _

 


	46. Epilogue III: Mind Games

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

**Epilogue III: Mind Games**

_Date: 02-10-2184_

_Location: Nos Astra, Illium_

* * *

Ghai and I sat on the floor of her and Trena's living room, facing one another as she walked me through the steps to make sure that I was relaxed and accepting of what was about to happen. It was going to be our second attempt, the first had been cut short when she'd realized that I wasn't in a fully meditative state. There hadn't been any real problems, just a tiny ache in the back of my skull, but Ghai had made it abundantly clear that if there was even the smallest issue she was going to cut it short.

"Breathe." She murmured in her ruined voice, "Slowly. Focus. Process."

My eyes were closed, but I nodded as I did so. Each breath became something that I actually though about, my brain tracking my muscles as they expanded and relaxed. We'd already spent nearly an hour going through memories that I'd long kept locked away. Remembering Callada. Jarrick. Thul. Rane'li. Remembering everyone else we'd lost in the fighting. The wounds. The exhaustion.

Smooth, scaled skin gently brushed through my goatee, cupping my face as I felt Ghai's breath. "Focus. Relax."

Another slow nod made me bow my head as ozone began to tickle my nose. The sensation that followed was... strange. The muscles in my neck began to move of their own accord, my eyes sliding open even though my brain didn't tell them to do so, revealing Ghai mere inches away as her eyes clouded into darkness.

She didn't tell me to embrace eternity. She didn't say anything. But one moment I was staring into her eyes, sitting on the floor... and the next I was upright, stumbling as I looked around in confusion. We were standing... on nothing, there was only darkness. Below, above, to the sides. Yet I could still see her, see myself.

"Not quite what I expected" I said quietly, turning back to her. "I know you said it would be like this but... huh. Disconcerting."

"In our arts, we call it the beginning." A lyrical, almost musical voice emerged as her lips moved. "The uniformity of it allows for the focus to be on only what we want it to be, rather than on whatever stray thoughts either of us may be having."

I just... stared at her.

Those same lips shifted, her expression becoming an almost melancholic smile as she shook her head. "Yes. This is what I sounded like a century ago, before... before."

It was... Athame's ass, I couldn't find the words in any language to describe her voice. It was simply beyond words. She had the kind of voice that musicians would sell their souls to own. But even as that thought came to me, a new one emerged. What must it be like for her? Every day, speaking through a burned throat, wincing when forced to utter anything longer than a few quiet words... when _this_ is what she had once sounded like?

"It's my pain, Cie." A hand rose to touch my chest, her words gentle but firm. "I've accepted it, much as you have to."

Blowing out a slow breath, I nodded slightly. "All right. What do we do next? Focus on memories, right?"

"Yes." She nodded, stepping back from me. "I am holding this image in our minds, it is much easier thanks to the meditative state you remain in. For now, we will start with something small. An old pain."

I blinked a little. "Who?"

"Re'hat Shaaryak."

"Re'hat? I haven't though of him in..." My voice trailed as the man in question appeared to our right. His features were a little blurred, as if he was being projected from a device that wasn't quite in focus, but I could tell it was him. "...huh. Right. We're in my head."

"Technically, we're in _our_ heads." Ghai reminded me, stepping around to indicate Nynsi's long-dead cousin. As she did, the image sharpened into perfect focus, likely a sign that her memory was much better than mine. "Re'hat died because you needed a distraction, died so that you could save yourself and Shaaryak from her mother."

I winced at the reminder, at the memory. The shape of Re'hat shifted, animating itself to become his last moments as he rose from behind his cover to taunt Yi'ren Ul Shaaryak, to draw her attention to him rather than me. I'd used his death well, and burned that bitch alive inside her own suit of power armor.

But... I let out a slow breath and turned away from the images, my voice quiet. "I didn't ask for him to do that. Didn't order it. He made his choice to be the distraction, to stand as he did."

The Asari regarded me with utter stoicism for several breaths before she nodded. "You are at peace with his passing?"

"He hasn't featured in my nightmares for a long time now." I rolled a shoulder in a shrug. "Honestly I don't really think about him much, mostly..."

She gave me another sad smile as my voice trailed off. "Because it reminds you of being with Nynsi?"

I glowered at her. "Yes, but don't start with that."

Two hands rose, "Calm, Cie. Calm. If you become too agitated you might try to reject the meld."

"I'm fine, just..." I shook myself a little. "We did the proof of concept, what's next?"

"We move on from the beginning." She supplied, holding her hands apart as her expression shifted to one of intense focus. The darkness seemed to ripple, and a dull ache began to throb deep within my skull. But before I could say anything, more figures were appearing, flickering into place like badly tuned holograms.

This time there was more than just one of them. Shit, there was more than a dozen in total, arranged into three distinct groups. Each had a single figure out in front, and I recognized all three because they were variations of myself.

To my right was... well, the me of maybe a month or two ago. Wearing battered, mud-stained armor, eyes sunken with fatigue and hair unkempt. Behind him was Thul, Callada, Jarrick, Marcus, Ullak, Hesh, all of them looking short with Glitch's towering form looming over them.

Directly ahead, just beyond Ghai, was Nynsi Shaaryak's Haratha'krem. He... _I_ , was clean shaven and immaculately dressed, looking cocky but somehow innocent. Behind that figure was Rane'li, Xerol, Marn, Re'hat, and the other old squad leaders, their features somewhat blurred by the passing of time. All of them except for Rane's... even as I looked at her, the image sharpened to perfect clarity, her expression softening and becoming the familiarly fond smile she'd give me when I did something to impress her.

Swallowing, I looked away and tried to see the group on the left. They weren't sharp, or blurry, instead the version of me continued to flicker and shift, as if my mental projector couldn't quite get into focus. It certainly _looked_ like an even younger me, but an emaciated teenaged me who'd been mauled by a shark or something. Great, gaping wounds all across his body bled endlessly into the void beneath his feet, and the green eyes were dead and sightless as they stared into the distance. Worse, the figures behind him wouldn't come into focus even as I turned to stare at them, resolutely remaining little more than misshapen outlines against the darkness.

I sucked in a breath and took a quick step away as the pain in my skull worsened. As if the throbbing was a signal, the final group abruptly vanished as Ghai let out a quiet sound of pain. "I'm sorry. I was trying to touch the parts of you that the Matriarch affected, but..."

"Yeah..." I swallowed, feeling my hands start shaking as I stared at the space the image and its shadows had occupied. "That was..."

"Everyone self-actualizes in a different way." She murmured, shaking herself slightly. "Consider that to be all that is left of your memories from before your attack."

"She didn't leave much of me behind then." I tried to keep my voice even, but felt it break a little midway through the sentence. I might have considered myself a hardened person, but seeing an image of yourself looking like that was apparently more than enough to make me crack a bit.

"No. Cie, you need to focus. Feel my skin, my hand. Focus on it." Ghai stepped forwards as her words became quick and urgent, reaching a hand up to touch my neck softly. The throbbing increasing in my skull as I closed my eyes against the pain and tried to do as she said, but the pain was too insistent, too pervasive. "Cie... dammm _mit_."

The last word seemed to slow into a long slur, my eyes snapping open in confusion to... Trena and Ghai's living room.

"Began rejection." She murmured, her voice once again its scratched, ruined shell. "Had to stop."

I tried to open my mouth to apologize, only for the memory of that mauled teenage me reappear before me as another throb of pain ran through my brain. Shuddering, I lowered my head a bit and tried to control myself before I had a break down or something.

There was a slow, heavy exhale before I felt her forehead press against mine, hands coming into view as she took mine and gently held on. "Breathe. Focus."

I did. It took me a while, maybe ten or fifteen minutes, but I never quite got to the point of hyperventilating. Which was something, I guessed. Progress.

"I'm all right." I said finally, letting out a heavy exhale. "Sorry for freaking out like that."

"Me." She corrected me with a murmur. "Too much. Unexpected severity."

"No, it's fine." I shook my head a little, slowly pulling back from hers. "Couldn't have expected... whatever the fuck that was. When do we try again?"

One of her shoulders twitched as she frowned. "Headache?"

"Already receding."

"Good." Ghai seemed to relax a little at that, then twisted her face as she forced full sentences out. "Means we didn't do additional damage to you. Should be safe to try again in a few days."

"All right." Puffing out my cheeks, I let my exhalation come out in a quick huff of air. "What's next?"

"Discussion." She replied. "Sleeping?"

I shrugged. "Averaging five hours or so."

She gave me an arch look that told me how little she believed that. After a few breaths, when I didn't correct myself, there was a quiet growl as she stood up and padded over to the door. Once it was open, she beckoned someone forward as she stepped back.

Voya poked her head in a moment later, her eyes glowing above her breathing mask. "Still alive then. I suppose I owe the big idiot twenty credits."

I rolled my eyes and gave her a rude gesture with both of my hands.

Ghai growled again, glaring at me before turning back to the Quarian. "Sleep. How much?"

"Me or him?" When a blue hand stabbed pointedly at me, she shrugged a little. "Three or four hours a night."

A muscle in my cheek twitched a little. "I'm going to cut all of your hair off, traitorous bitch who sleeps less than I do."

Voya blinked rapidly before scowling. "I sleep more than you do ass...hole..." Her voice faltered as Ghai turned her glare onto the Quarian. After a few moments she tried to offer an excuse, but from her weak her voice was she knew it wasn't about to help her. "He keeps me awake?"

Ghai's glare turned into a vicious, Vorcha like smile that cause Voya to take a quick step back from her and me to heave myself to my feet so that I could run if I had to. When she spoke her voice was it's usual rasp, but this time she didn't wince as the long, angry phrases came out. "When I started helping you both, I made you agree that you would never lie to me."

I vaguely recalled a conversation that had gone like that. "Um... we're sorry?"

"After dinner, I expect you both in the training room." She continued as if I hadn't spoken. "Perhaps it is a simple matter of you not being tired enough to sleep. As your mind healer, it is my duty to assist you."

My tongue licked my lips a little. "Ghai, I've got a meeting with-"

"You will be there." She snapped, the pure authority and command in her growling voice making my head duck down and to the left, my chin tucking all the way to my neck in submission.

"Yes ma'am, will be there."

"Good." Ghai growled. "Cie, out. Voya, stay."

I made my escape with as much dignity as I could scrape together, which wasn't all that much. And I entirely ignored Voya's almost pleading glance as I walked past her. Privately I thought it was entirely too amusing, or at least, I had before today. Since I'd known her, Voya didn't follow anyone's orders but mine, and even then she had a tendency to interpret them in the most violent way possible.

Then she'd tried to skip out of the first therapy session that Ghai had scheduled for her, in favor of continuing to work on repairing our guns with me.

I had absolutely no idea what she'd done to her after she'd dragged her out of the machine shop by the hair, but Voya had been all but terrified of the Asari ever since. To the point where she hadn't even bloody hesitated to reveal that I _hadn't_ been getting as much sleep as I'd been claiming I had.

Closing the door behind me, I shook my head and started down the corridor. Whatever was coming tonight, I'd need food first. Walking down the gaudy hallways, I made my way to the nearest lounge. Most of them had terminals where you could order food from the various kitchens built through the place, which was convenient if nothing else.

Entering the sunlit room, I drew up short at the sight of its single occupant.

She was an Asari, of medium height for her people, but with a bit more muscle than most. Her simple gray sundress was stained with a variety of colors from the paints laid out around her, her features pinched in focus as she added a few touches to the sail of the sailing vessel plowing it's way through a winter storm. But it wasn't the well done image, or anything about her body that drew my attention.

My eyes were focused on the thick silver collar around her neck, tiny lights glowing to indicate that the biotic nullifier was online and functional.

Aethyta's eldest daughter glanced over her shoulder as the door slid shut, frowning somewhat at me. The expression made her look a younger clone of her mother, though her eyes lacked the cold exhalation that had always seemed to haunt the old fish.

"Cieran Kean." She exhaled my name. "I wondered when I would meet you."

"Metheri T'Voth." I replied, pursing my lips a little, trying to think of something to say. What the fuck _did_ you say to the person being held hostage so that her parent wouldn't kill you, your friend, and your primary benefactor?

Shit. Especially when you weren't exactly comfortable with keeping her hostage in the first place, even if I could understand the reasoning, even the necessity, behind doing so.

Her lips twitched a little. "I'm not my mother, Kean. I don't blame you for not saying anything. The truth would have sounded insane, and in either case you had no reason to believe that the events in question would actually happen."

I blinked, then let out a quiet curse as I turned away and all but stomped over to the room's terminal. "Is there anyone Sederis _hasn't_ told?"

She barked out a laugh, her own head turning back to her work. "I believe just Leska and myself. It was Leska's idea to tell me, she felt that I should at least know why I'm trapped in this palace. Her Xenthan concept of honor, I believe."

"Nice of her." I muttered as I stabbed at the menu, ordering a sandwich and water. "You said you didn't blame me for not saying anything?"

"I do not." Metheri murmured serenely, leaning close to the canvas to inspect an area. "There isn't any point in blaming a dead being, given that my mother is going to kill you."

My mouth went a little dry at the utter certainty in her words. "Assuming she lived through whatever Benezia did to her."

"She's alive." She assured me. "I've received messages."

I blinked and turned to regard the back of her head. "Sederis lets you communicate?"

A quiet laugh was her response to that. "Of course not, but mother is nothing if not resourceful. I've gotten them all the same, despite the Eclipse's best efforts."

Well that was... ominous in all kinds of ways. I'd thought Aethyta had spent all of her favors when she'd been fighting to keep her job, and then gone after Benezia and Saren. Either she hadn't, or she had far more personal resources than I'd thought. Regardless it left me and Trena in a riptide. Well, mostly me.

Sederis, in all probability, would kill Metheri if Trena ended up dead. But if I was the one who got killed... she might hurt her, or rape her or something, but she wouldn't risk killing the only hostage she had to protect Trena and herself. Aethyta would likely know that.

Great. Another fucking thing to worry about on top of the SIU. Those fuckers were probably going to resume their own hunt for us as soon as we left Illium. And there was still Matriarch T'Ravt and whatever the fuck she was up to...

Goddess. Suddenly I wasn't hungry anymore, and with a flick of my finger canceled the order.

Maybe Aethyta would have calmed down by now, at least enough to be reasoned with or delayed. As furious as I might still be at the old, hypocritical bitch, she wasn't someone I precisely wanted dead. In an ideal universe we would simply never see each other again.

But... shit, if it came to a fight, I had no idea how the fuck I would even go about trying to drown her given the power I'd seen her slinging around. Anything like an open battle would result in her tearing us all apart unless we could convince Sederis, or maybe a healthy Mirala, to help contain her power until she exhausted her ancient body.

Glancing back at Merethi, I found her regarding me out of one eye, her blue lips pulled in a small smile. She'd known exactly what kind of effect her words would have on me, and was visibly relishing the crap whirling around in my mind.

"You lied." I murmured softly. "About blaming me."

"I am Aethyta T'Voth's daughter, human." She replied as she turned her back on me. "I learned to lie before I could walk."

The fingers on both of my hands twitched, shaking a few times before I got them back under control. Ten meters forward into the tide, thirty meters back. But I couldn't even bring myself to be angry with the bitch. She was a hostage, she knew she could end up killed or violated or mutilated or whatever the fuck Sederis felt like doing to her whenever the Warlord decided it should be done.

Using words as weapons was probably one of the few methods of defiance open to her.

And... shit. If a few quiet comments from a prisoner were all it took to make my hands start shaking, then my progress wasn't nearly as rapid as I'd hoped that it was.

Letting out a quiet curse, I turned away from her and left without another word. Spinning my omni-tool open, I fired off a quick message to Illyan, telling her to meet me in one of the sparring rooms immediately.

Maybe I could goad her into breaking a few of my bones or something, just to round the day out.

* * *

_**Next up is Epilogue IV: Unexpected Guests** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so we have our first glimpse into Cie's head, and we meet one of Aethyta's other daughters. The next chapter will take place in a location that Cie hasn't been to in quite a while, though the title should make it clear that things won't be as relaxing as he would prefer them to be. Also, add Ghai to the collection of people I feel like I need to write an OC story about.
> 
> I know I've asked this before, but I'll ask again. The Tropes page hasn't really been touched since Terminus was written, and to be honest I feel awkward to be the one to add things to it beyond the basics (what story is being written, which are done, etc). If anyone could take a look at it and maybe add a few things to bring it up to the 'modern' fic I would be insanely appreciative. If you don't have an account there you could always just PM me ideas and I'd be happy to add them for you.
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	47. Epilogue IV: Unexpected Guests

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

**Epilogue IV: Unexpected Guests**

_Date: 02-17-2184_

_Location: Nos Astra, Illium_

* * *

Exhaling slowly, I nodded once and then snapped my weapon up. The butt of the rifle smacked into my shoulder as I aimed, index finger pulling gently on the trigger. The weapon barely bucked as it fired, making me grunt quietly in approval at the near lack of recoil.

Shifting my aim to the right, the same finger on my other hand tapped a tiny button just above the forward grip to shift fire-modes. The next pull of the trigger had the gun tremble a bit more violently as four rounds came out in rapid order, all striking the holographic 'enemy' in a tight cluster. Grunting to myself, I flicked back to single-shots and put three more in the next target, and then it was back to burst fire for the one after.

A quiet buzzer went off when the fourth target dropped, leaving only the heavy echoes of the gunshots.

Nynsi Shaaryak nodded from where she stood on my right as I finished the short test, dressed in an immaculate brown suit that complemented her teal skin. "Do you approve, Cieran?"

"So far." I allowed, clicking the safety on before setting it down onto the table in front of us. We were standing in a hastily built shooting range on the mansion's grounds, the normal bustle of the place almost painfully familiar. Shit, I'd even switched back to the formal Highborn tongue that she had drilled into me without even thinking about it. "Heat started to build up pretty quick with the bursts though."

"Unavoidable, I'm afraid." Her left hand waved at the gun. "As you insist on it being calibrated for heavy rounds, there are going to be trade offs as a result. I have engineers working on another model with a removal thermal clip based on what little the Citadel has revealed, but it likely won't be ready for field tests for months."

I grimaced a little. "I still worry about the weight with that, all things considered. It's not a light weapon to begin with."

"It's an issue." She sighed. "But they're capable enough."

"Don't doubt that." It was my turn to wave a hand at the rifle. "They put that together in less than a year. Impressive."

Visually it looked much the same as the Redcliffe militia carbine that the weapon had been based on. Blocky, simply built, but rugged and sturdy. The primary differences were beneath the plating, and worked to counter some of the drawbacks of the cheaply built gun that Zaen had churned out. Shifting the location of the ammo block to make it easier to replace, the burst fire setting that I'd just tested, a lengthened barrel for better accuracy at range, and an improved thermal system all worked to make it a far superior weapon.

And it still fired off a heavy-ass round that would leave a fucking mess when it hit someone.

"How many prototypes do you have done?" I asked, glancing at her.

She flicked her lower eyes past me, to where the remainder of my tiny 'branch' of the Silver Blades were lounging in the shadow of her mansion. Illyan was leaning against the building, catching up with Chen, with Voya listening in as she inspected the new tech launcher Nynsi had given her. For her part, Shyeel had taken her shirt off and was stretched out on the manicured lawn, apparently content to sunbathe despite everything going on around her.

The last was obviously annoying Nynsi as much as it was distracting half of the staff and guards working in the yards.

"One each for yourself and Illyan. I did not think that Miss T'Voth or Voya'chi would desire one." Nynsi shook her head a little as the entirety of her gaze returned to me. "I believe you are content with the pistols that you have?"

"For now, yeah." A stray thought occurred to me. "Did you start that production line of the hand cannons?"

"The licensed Yeshe line?" She nodded once. "Yes, but only a small one."

I grunted. "I might want to take a few with as back-ups, just in case."

"I'll add it to your list." She promised. "The tech mines should be delivered by the end of the week, along with the spare parts you requested. The armor plating is taking a little longer, but it should be here by the end of the month."

"Thank you." I offered quietly. As much as we'd tried, the armor we'd taken to Redcliffe had... well, it had died for lack of a better term. It was cheaper to replace it all than to try and fix the plates and systems that needed to be replaced. I was getting Jerrtya patterned light armor from Nynsi's production line, with some slight modifications as I was human instead of Batarian. Illyan and Shyeel were getting the same Vael-Shianni suits that Nynsi's Asari employees wore.

Which just left Voya, who as usual was the problem one when it came to armor. Not many groups made combat-spec equipment for Quarians, and we'd had to order a set from a custom manufacturer over in Nos Irrail.

"You are welcome." Nynsi murmured back turning away from the shooting range. I followed on reflex, staying close to her left side as we moved. "Though I do wish you would reconsider. You've always performed well in heavier plating."

"Been over this." I sighed. "Maneuverability and endurance, we'll up the barriers and put in the secondary layers as usual. Maybe even tertiary if you can spare the eezo."

"I can." Both of her dark eyes glanced at me. "But if those things are so important, why do insist on such large caliber weapons?"

"Because if I hit a Vocha or a Varren I want it to stay down." I replied easily. "And you need heavy shot to break through Krogan armor. If we run into people relying more on barriers and shields, that's what the overload mines are for."

"Fair enough." Her right hand rose, gesturing at the garage in an elegant arc. "I will also keep a new power armor suit for you in the garage here, modified to your specifications. If you ever require it, simply ask and I will have a shuttle bring it to you."

"Thank you again."

"You should hold your thanks until you see the latest purchase I made on our behalf." A quick glance confirmed that she had a very self-satisfied expression on her face. Well, one tiny corner of her mouth was quirked up. By Nynsi's I'm-in-public-standards she was practically jumping up and down in excitement. "They are waiting in the garage."

I glanced at her in bemusement as we walked towards the open hanger doors. "Should I be worried?"

"Of course not." She assured me. "Consider it my thank you gift for bringing me into your organization as a partner."

My nose flexed as I snorted. "So it's something expensive then."

" _Very._ " There was a heavy stress on the words.

Sighing at the expected response, I followed her inside the familiar building. The staff working on the fleet of aircars and new shuttles were a mix of new faces and old ones that I could only vaguely recognize, but my attention was mostly focused on a single crate set purposefully away from everything else.

Glancing at Nynsi, I approached the the box when she almost impatiently waved for me to open it up. Snorting, I slowed my pace a bit just to annoy her a bit before ducking my head to the left in silent apology. Opening it was easy enough, but I found myself frowning a little bit at the sight of navy colored leather.

Reaching down, I carefully picked it up, eventually extracting a very heavy, very expensive looking trench coat.

"Nynsi," I asked with a frown, "What is this?"

She let out a hissing breath between her teeth, stepping forwards to take it from me and shake it out a bit.

It was primarily dark navy in coloration, but now that she'd opened it I could see that there were thin silver strips along the edges. Insignia decorated each shoulder, the Silver Blade dripping Asari blood on the right, the outline of a charging _chevalier_ that had become my personal logo on the left. It was undecorated apart from that, but as Nynsi shifted it a little I could see angles where the material didn't quite move as I thought it would.

"Strike plates." I murmured quietly.

"With inlaid barriers and a connection jack to power it from your armor." She explained easily. "This one is meant to be worn over your light plating."

I glanced at her. "This one?"

"There are two for each of you. Consider it an addition to your formal uniform."

My eyebrows went even further up. "Formal uniform?"

"Still in the design phase." She waved a hand irritably. "Massa rejected the initial designs, but she approved of these. All of the... old guard, will have one. An extra layer of protection and flair when you're in armor, and hidden defense if you're in a public circumstance here or on Xentha."

I glanced at the coat again. It was big, obviously intended to go over armor plating now that I thought about it, and would probably dangle to around my shins. "Is the other one the same?"

"Longer, it should be just above the ground. This one is shorter for ease of movement and to decrease the chances it will get caught on something as you move." Her left shoulder rolled in a tiny shrug. "The other also has it's own power supply intended to be worn on the back of your belt."

I found myself nodding slightly. Not that I really cared about the fashion aspect of it, but more protection was always a good thing. Privately I doubted that we'd actually wear them in a fight, the added weight and chance they could catch on something would probably make them not worth it, but if we were just walking around in public the extra strikes plates and barriers could be the difference between survival or death if someone tried to take us out.

And considering just how many fucking people might try to assassinate us, I'd take any help I could get.

"This is why you didn't push harder for heavier armor, isn't it?" I asked, turning back to the crate and pulling out the next one. It was also mine, given that it had the same pair of logos, and noticeably slimmer. My formal wear version then, though I had no fucking idea when or where I would actually wear it.

"Naturally." All four of her eyes narrowed as her head tilted slightly to the right and forwards. "And you _will_ wear it Cieran. We will be a professional organization and comport ourselves appropriately."

I considered arguing with her about that, then her posture shifted to something a bit more aggressive and I thought better of it. Besides, I had a bad feeling that any argument between us could devolve in one way or another, which would leave our new working relationship in a rather awkward place.

So instead I decided to shift the topic to something a little safer. "Who all got these?"

"Everyone who returned from Redcliffe with you, as well as myself and Chen." She replied, glancing at the container. "Though only your team's are in there. The remainder will be shipped to Xentha."

Grunting, I was about to turn back to see what she'd done for everyone else's personal insignia, when one of the mansion's servants all but sprinted into the garage. Nynsi's lip twitched slightly at the undignified display, and her posture shifted to one of polite irritation as the lowborn man skidded to a stop in front of her. He quickly ducked his head as deeply in submission as he could while still panting for breath.

"My apologies, Lady Shaarayk, but there is a Spectre at the front gates." He gasped out each word. "She is demanding a conference with you."

I glanced at Nynsi, only to see her frown somewhat. "Spectre Vasir was not due to meet with her sister and I until next week."

"It is not Spectre Vasir ma'am, it's the human one." His upper eyes widened, as he finally realized that I was present, and he all but fell over himself. "Spectre Shepard I mean, I meant no offense Reyja'krem."

I honestly had no idea how I could of taken offense, Shepard _was_ human, and the only one of our species who was a Spectre. "Don't worry about it. Did she have an escort with her?"

"Yes, Reyja'krem. An Asari, two humans, and a Quarian."

Liara, Williams, Korolev and Tali most likely. A better question was what was Shep doing in Nos Astra to begin with? Illium might have technically been inside of Council space, but the population was never what you'd call welcoming when a Spectre came to visit. Those few that did almost never left Nos Irrail, recruiting from the various small mercenary halls in that city before leaving again.

"Well then." Nynsi murmured, "Let us go see what she wants. Should we alert your companions?"

"If Zorah is here, the last thing we want is for her and Voya to see each other." I shook my head as I turned back to the staff member. "If you could, please alert them to what is happening but tell them I'd prefer them to remain here."

The young male glanced at Nynsi with his upper eyes, and she nodded somewhat impatiently. He scampered away at once, leaving her to sigh as he did so. "I will have to make it clear that your orders are to be followed implicitly once again. Do get properly dressed before we meet the Spectre, Cieran."

My eyes rolled, but I put the new coat on. She helped me get the small power pack onto my belt, the device humming almost silently as I buttoned up the front of it to cover up the plain shirt I had on. To my complete lack of surprise it fit perfectly, and even billowed a little bit around my legs as we entered the mansion proper.

"If only I'd finished my new cane." I muttered as walked down the various halls, heading towards the entrance corridor. "Would complete the image don't you think?"

Nynsi's lips twitched a little on one side. "If the image you are striving for is that of my departed uncle."

"Not a bad one to emulate."

"No, no it is not." She agreed. "Though the reminder is welcome. I find myself in the need for such a cane as well, or else another form of concealed weapon. I am, after all, not always in a circumstance where I can carry both of my own heavy pistols openly, and they are rather difficult to hide."

I nodded as a small smile tugged at my lips. "Tech launcher or pistol for the former?"

"Pistol of course."

Nodding again, I mulled the time-frame before rolling my left shoulder. "I'll give you the one I'm finishing up on then, will make a new one for myself later. We're of similar height so it should work all right."

Both of her left eyes flicked at me, our pace slowing as we neared our destination. "You're sure?"

"Yes. It's a nice to have but I don't really need it." Quiet, murmured voices began to echo. I recognized Shepard and Williams at once, though there was a deep male voice that through me off for several breaths.

Was that Vega? What was he doing with Shepard already?

Emerging into the corridor proper revealed it to be much the same as it had been before my exile. Wide windows letting in sunlight, a pair of slightly elevated gardens running lengthwise to create an elegant little walkway down the center of the room. Benches lurked in alcoves along the sides, drawing you to want to relax and simply enjoy the atmosphere.

Which was the idea, after all. The room hardly looked like the death trap that it was.

I doubted that Shepard, even in her armor like she was, would look so relaxed if she knew that there was a dozen heavy turrets concealed beneath the flower beds, along with directional shaped charges mounted above each bench. Armored shutters could close in less than a second, preventing escape even as a pair of heavy combat mechs would emerge from hidden lifts near the front door itself.

"Madame Shaaryak." The Spectre managed a modestly polite bow to her host, holding her helmet against her side. Behind her, the fully armored Williams, T'Soni, and Vega did much the same, though Tali's glowing eyes focused on me in a tight glare as her own head briefly lowered. "Kean."

"Spectre Shepard." Nynsi murmured, tilting her head just barely forwards to accept the respect without offering much back. "For what reason do you wish to speak with me?"

"I am investigating a smuggling ring that is moving goods from Illium to the Citadel. Captain Vasir indicated that you may have informational sources that could assist me."

Four dark eyes narrowed by a millimeter, though she kept her head level rather than openly displaying her annoyance. "I am a businesswoman, Spectre. Not an information broker."

Shepard stared right back at her, her own expression not shifting in the slightest. "My initial investigations indicate that the T'Mashar clan may be behind the movement of drugs."

Nynsi went still for a fraction of a breath. A business rival then, which would explain why Shera Vasir had pointed the Spectre in this direction. "I see. What articles are being transferred?"

"Dust, Red Sand, Heroin, half a dozen others." The Spectre shook her head slightly. "We believe they are being moved out of Nos Astra's spaceport, but the I-Sec officers have yet to notice anything unusual."

I couldn't help but snort and enter the conversation. "The Nos Astran branch is probably the single most corrupt law enforcement agency in the galaxy."

Shepard twisted her lips a little, the motion pulling at her scar. "So I've noticed."

"And what do you desire in terms of information?" Nynsi shifted her head to a slightly more respectful angle.

"The T'Mashar own at least a dozen sub-corporations, but thanks to Illium's laws they don't have to publicly state what they are. I think one of them is being used to smuggle the drugs to the Citadel alongside legitimate goods."

"Quite likely." The Highborn nodded slightly. "C-Sec has proven most adept at catching smaller smugglers. I believe I might have those names for you."

The Spectre regarded her impassively. "What is it going to cost me in return?"

"Cost?" Definite amusement colored her low, smooth voice. "Why would it cost you anything?"

Shepard blinked a few times, then shook her head. "Right. Self-interest, room to expand if your rival goes down."

"Quite. Was there anything else you required?"

"A few minutes with Kean." A muscle in my cheek twitched once, despite having more or less expected the request.

Nynsi glanced at me with her left eyes, and I nodded once. She moved her chin in a tiny motion of acceptance, backing away to give us the illusion of privacy as she brought her omni-tool up.

Moving forwards, I flicked my eyes around her team before shuffling to a stop a meter or so away. "Hunting smugglers now? Isn't that a bit low on the Spectre to-do list?"

Shepard stared at me, her nearly violet eyes looking more than a little annoyed. "I see the war hasn't made you any less of an ass."

I lifted my eyebrows. "Someone's testy. Little too close to the mark?" While the Spectre didn't react, behind her I saw Vega shift a little in discomfort. Huh. I wasn't that far off then. I was still catching up on galactic news, but I hadn't heard anything about Saren being dragged in, or plans for further war against the Geth. It was entirely plausible that Shepard wasn't happy about that, and making it known publicly... with the result of the Council giving her crap assignments as far away from the Citadel as possible.

"Do you have any more information on Aethyta T'Voth, that we don't already know?" She spoke before I could continue being annoying until she snapped and revealed something. "We still have no confirmation on whether she is alive or dead."

It was my turn to go still for a few breaths, my eyes flicking to the Asari lingering next to Tali. "I know she's alive, but that's about the extent of it."

"How?" Liara took a quick step forward, "How do you know that?"

"Your half-sister told me." I shook my head. "She also told me that the old bitch still wants me dead. But it's entirely possible that she was lying just to mess with my head."

"Why would she lie?" The maiden demanded.

"Because she's a hostage." I sighed tiredly. "And she at least partly blames me for being one."

" _You_ are keeping her-"

" _Sederis_ is keeping her." I cut off the fury before it could begin. "Wasn't my idea and it's not like I could free her even if I wanted to. Didn't I tell you that the last time we met?"

"You did." Shepard stepped forwards, placing a restraining hand on T'Soni's shoulder. "I want you to alert me the moment you think you've encountered her or one of her people. We have questions for her."

"Assuming I survive, sure." Fuck, maybe for once in my short life I'd get lucky and they'd talk the old fish out of it. Or at least, into focusing on other crap for a while.

Yeah, and maybe Athame herself would sleep with me.

"Anything else?" I sighed tiredly. "Not that I don't love talking with you Shepard, but sooner or later Voya is going to get bored and come pick a fight with the princess."

Tali's longer fingers curled into fists. "I'd like to see that little-"

"Kean just..." Shepard cut her off, actually reaching up to pinch the bridge of her nose. "Go away. I'll message you if I need more information."

Giving her a little smile, I bowed my head and turned away. Nynsi glowered at me slightly as she continued to pull up information, making her own opinion of my words quite clear. I shrugged a little, not very sorry for annoying Shepard and her crew.

It probably wasn't terribly smart of me to be doing so, but it was good for my morale. Maybe next time I _would_ bring Voya with, just to listen to her and Tali snipe at each other.

Amusing myself with those thoughts, I headed back towards the garage to see what everyone else thought of our new 'uniforms'.

* * *

_**Next up is Epilogue V: Departures** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is mostly an informational chapter, getting Cie's weapons and armor set, and teasing a little bit about what Shepard's life is like given the changes to the timeline. The next chapter will be Vengeance's last one, featuring the group preparing to depart Illium for Xentha.
> 
>  
> 
> Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
> 
> Thanks, Kat


	48. Epilogue V: Departures

I don't own the Mass Effect.

* * *

**Epilogue V: Departures**

_Date: 03-01-2184_

_Location: Nos Astra, Illium_

* * *

"I'm going to miss the free drinks." Trena exhaled as she sipped from her beer. The pair of us were lounging in one of the mansion's many lounges, along with Erana. The young maiden was alternating between topping our glasses off, Trena's with alcohol and mine with water, and reading some historical piece on her tablet. "What time is our shuttle again?"

" _My_ shuttle," I heavily emphasized the first word, and pointedly not saying when it was actually leaving, "Not ours. You're staying here, we've been over this."

She waved a blue hand negligently. "I tuned out those moronic rants ape. I'm not about to fucking let you go alone."

My eyes narrowed a little. "Voya, Shyeel, and Illyan are coming with, I'm hardly alone."

A scoffing sound came out before she corrected herself. "Yeah, but none of them are me, and one of them's a bloody psychopah."

"Voya's not a psychopath." I exhaled tiredly. "Psychopaths don't care about people. She does."

Trena snorted. "Only according to you and Illyan, neither of whom are fucking subjective when it comes to that bitch."

"Maybe." I shrugged noncommittally, taking a slow drink from my own glass. "The point is I won't be alone, and that you aren't coming with to Xentha."

"Xentha." She muttered the name. "Why the fuck are you going there anyway? Not like Krom's going to be there."

"It's..." I shook my head. "Ghai and I found glimpses in my head. Pictures of the capital, Celthani. Sederis's people might not have found much but we might. And Voya deserves to be able to visit her home like we did ours."

There was a quiet grunt. "And we can help Ayle set up crap."

"That and try and talk T'Ravt out of doing anything." I sighed. "But the 'we' in question doesn't involve you scales. Ghai needs you here to help take care of Ethy. And she deserves her bondmate to be home with her for a while."

Trena flinched slightly. "Ghai is the one who sent me to help you in the firsht place."

"That was then and this is now." Setting my glass down, I leaned back in my chair and observed her. "And she didn't expect you to stay and fight with us."

"Yeah, but you were all fucked up an'shit." Her gem colored eyes blinked a few times, seeming to dilate as she glanced down at her drink. "What sha'fuck?"

I simply smiled at her and crossed my arms.

More blinking was followed by an exhausted looking glare. "You fuckin' ash...hole..."

She tried to get up, probably to take a swing at me. Instead she swayed almost drunkenly then collapsed right back into her chair. My oldest friend tried to say something else, managed something like a gurgle, and then slumped down over the table. An arm hit her drink on the way, and I snapped a hand out to grab it before it could spill, carefully setting it aside as she passed out.

I waited a few moments, then reached out and poked her crest once. There was a mumbling noise, but she didn't stir as her breathing leveled out into the deep rhythms of someone deeply asleep.

"Athame's ass, what did you give her?" I asked out loud.

Erana let out a nervous, girlish titter. "A heavy sleep aid that Mistress Sederis says can be taken with drinks."

I snorted as I stood up. "Thanks. Remember to blame me."

She nodded, rose, then quickly padded across the room on bare feet before all but tackling me in a hug. I didn't hesitate for more than a moment before I wrapped my own arms around her slim frame as she lowered her head to rest it on my shoulder. "Take care of yourself sir."

"You too." I returned quietly. "Remember to message us. Especially your sister."

There was a tiny laugh. "I'll send you pictures when Miss Ghai beats her up for trying to leave again."

I snorted, giving her maiden a momentary squeeze before loosening my grip. "Those will be funny, if nothing else. Take care of yourself. And watch the caffiene intake, I don't care if Sederis doesn't monitor it. I'll message Ghai if I have to."

There was a heavy, swallowing sound. "Jerk."

"I know." I exhaled as we let go, stepping apart.

Erana glanced over at Trena's unconcious form. "She's going to be very mad at you when she wakes up."

"Scales? Mad at me? What else is new." Giving her a small smile, I bowed my head and then turned away. "Let me know if you find any good books."

Erana promised that she would, and then I was out of the lounge, my stride lengthening as I headed down the hall. After a few breaths, a shadow detached itself from behind one of the ostentatious columns, Voya skipping every other step to keep up. I slowed a bit so that she could walk normally, her glowing eyes asking as silent question.

I nodded to let her know that the plan had worked. Her gray lips pealed back to show both sets of canines, a fierce approving grin that lingered for a while as we walked. It didn't vanish until one of the mansion's staff emerged from one of their entrances, our travel bags held in both of her hands. I thanked her politely and took them, handing my companion hers, and then we resumed our trek.

It didn't take us long to reach the hanger where our shuttle waited, already ready to go. Two more Asari were waiting for us outside of it, one leaning against the vehicle while the other was standing just a few meters inside the entrance.

"You two ready to go?" I asked quietly. "Last chance to back out."

"I presume you're talking to the big idiot." Shyeel snorted, already heaving her own bag over a shoulder, her collapsed Kishok held in one hand. "Because if you're saying that to me I might have to punch you on principal."

"Of course he's talking to the idiot." Voya murmured, stepping around me and moving to follow the Reyja'krem up the ramp. "She shouldn't be coming with at all."

Illyan let out a rumbling noise and made a halfhearted swipe at the Quarian's head as she passed. Voya easily ducked it before heading up the ramp, looking all too eager to get going. Which was understandable really, she was the one going home for the first time in years.

"Erana would fall apart if you die." I rose my voice slightly as the shuttle's engines thrummed to life. "You don't have to come with."

"Then I guess you'll have to make sure I don't boss." The massive Asari crossed her arms, her expression resolute. "Isn't that your job as my Tarath'shan?"

I opened my mouth and then shut it with a snap as a sinking feeling appeared in my gut. "Illyan, I'm not your-"

"Ayle walked me through the oath taking process boss." She shook her head. "Witnessed it all before she left. Said it was about time you formed a cadre for yourself."

The fingers on my left hand twitched a few times. "You told her I approved?"

Her dark lips curled. "Going to punish me, Tarath'shan?"

"Illyan..." I exhaled, shaking my head, trying to find the words. I didn't _want_ a cadre, of people sworn to be my vassals by Batarian law. It might not mean much to anyone else, but to me, to any Batarian, it wasn't a small thing. Athame's ass, she'd bound herself to obey me in damn near every aspect of her fucking life. "It's not your culture, you don't have to-"

"Boss." She shook her head, the smile fading into something more serious. "Cie. I did it, it's done. Ayle told me what it would mean, what I'd have to do. What responsibilities I'd have. I said the words and I meant them."

I stared at her. "And if I ordered you to stay here and watch over Erana?"

"I'd say that you're obviously not thinking clearly about your own safety, then I'd drag you up onto that shuttle and accept whatever punishment you thought up until you realized that you need me with you boss." I kept staring at her, then I shook my head tiredly and ran a hand through my hair. She gave me a small grin, and turned to the ship. "Coming, or do you need me to carry you boss?"

"The next time Voya tries to set your crest on fire I'm going to let her." I growled, shaking my head as I finally got moving.

Despite my annoyance, and worry for her, I couldn't entirely admit that I didn't feel... something at the declaration. Knowing that she'd stay with me wherever the fuck this journey ended up. Shit, especially after the last year.

We'd lost friends, suffered physical wounds, mental scars, and even several more successful melds with Ghai didn't change the fact that my mental oceans were anything but calm. All of that pain hadn't won us much either. Respect, maybe, money of course, but not what I really wanted. Not my vengeance against the asshole who'd taken my lover, who'd killed her just because he wanted to fuck with me.

But we were still here, and now things were going to be different. Krom had gotten away from us when we'd been hobbled and restricted. He'd been able to turn our allies against us, co-opt forces of his own to hound us, and then to flee while we were trapped by the writing of our own contracts.

Now... now we'd be sailing under our own colors, free to chose our own course. Free to pursue every lead, to chase down his friends and allies, to cut off his options, to drive him into every storm. His allies would be backpedaling, scrambling to cover for the loss of one of their most important worlds, making demands of him. Requiring him to be involved in places and fights that he'd have avoided previously.

Krom had hurt us, just as we'd hurt ourselves. It was past time that we hurt him back.

"Should have had them kill us when you had the chance." I breathed quietly as we entered the shuttle, the engines obscuring my voice as the pilot began to throttle up. "Let's see how you fare on the fast hunt you son of a bitch."

* * *

_**End Another Realm IV: Vengeance** _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Massive, massive thanks to everyone who is still reading this story, and this series in general. Additional kudos to everyone who's reviewed, you're literally the inspiration that keeps me writing at such a frenetic pace. Couldn't do it without you all.
> 
> Special thanks to the usual suspects here. The Blocked Writer for continuing to act as my beta and for working tirelessly to keep me on track, as well as to GreaterGoodIreland for his original creation of the series' Tropes Page.
> 
> I'm hoping to take a little bit of time off before beginning Einherjar, as well as to try and work ahead once I do get going. I know I say that every time and end up just rolling into the next fic, but this time is different. :P
> 
> Remember that I'm more than happy to talk with anyone, so feel free to PM me with thoughts, questions, or just to chat about the series.
> 
> Until I come back,
> 
> Semper Victoria,
> 
> Katkiller V


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